TromboneChat

What are we looking at here?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-1920s- ... Sw7Wxdkm0N

Thanks,
Ian

Woof

I saw that too. Looks like a neat horn but it must be some sort of custom work because I've never seen any wrap like that, especially on an ambassador

No way it's from the 1920s -- there was no Ambassador model then.

Looks like a custom job on a hon that doesn't warrant any "improvements". Lipstick on a pig.

The bends in the wrap make me sad. Kinda looks like whoever did it wanted adjustable tuning though.

To be fair, in their day, the Ambassador was the student horn of choice like the Yamaha 356 (or whatever model it is) is today. Only the Conn Director seems to have spanned both eras and been competion for both olds and Yamaha. They were good student horns. I'd guess someone rather liked this one and rather than go and buy a new horn had a tech put the F tubing on. Its well thought out and novel but functional - pull with a stop on it, a loop to help you achieve this quickly (maybe while youve still got your lips on the mouthpiece)? Probably no value in it but I'd say from an interst point of view (especially if you collect olds horns) it was collectable. Be interested to know Johns take on it.... Doug

Yeah that exit port is pretty exotic! If the work was done well, I bet it plays reasonably well. I've thought about picking up the slightly larger version with an F attachment but I like my 356 which is the 500/525 Yamaha with an F attachment. The Olds horn is something like 495/508, but the straight is 485/500(?). If you wanted an inexpensive, small tenor w/ F attachment, this is your chance!

Not exactly pretty, but someone put a lot of effort into it.

Looks like the original horn was a Fullerton A-15. Pretty small (.485"/.500", 7.5" bell) for an f-attachment.

I remember a handful of horns of this sort (basic student tenors with interesting f-attachments grafted on) being on eBay a few years back. This might be one of them resurfacing.

Excellent photos showing most of the warts, such as overbuffed bell, sloppy soldering, use of heat shrink tubing, misaligned slide stop, external corrosion, no significant dents. I'd like to see pix of the inner slide. An interesting horn to screw around with if the price doesn't get out of hand. Are you feeling lucky/adventurous?