info wanted on TIS Olds

[Kingfan]

Buddy just let me play an old Olds . I is that a redundant statement? . Looks like silver with gold wash inner bell. F. E. Olds, Los Angeles, nice engraving, tuning in slide, counterweight is a cast bear holding a horn. Any info? I can get the sn from him if needed. Thanks!

[BGuttman]

The bear counterweight was a pricey option. Another option was planishing the bell stem, so if you think somebody had some damage there think again.

Without a counterweight these horns are VERY nose-heavy.

There were a number of variants of this horn. Bore sizes of Medium and Medium Large. Bell sizes from 7" to 8".

I have one that is ML bore and an 8 inch bell (8 inch bell is rather rare). My bell looks like it was chrome plated although the rest of the instrument is normal silver plate. Mine dates to about 1925.

Great playing horns. Only problem is the friction fit if you are playing music with a lot of mute work.

[Kingfan]

Thanks. It has a threaded bell/slide attachment. I'll try and get some pics and the SN.

[doctortrombone]

There were two bear counterweight configurations. One looks like a bear with a slide trombone. The other looks like a squirrel with a megaphone. I haven't seen a lot of either. The horns themselves are very good players especially the larger version with the 8" bell. Relatively speaking, there are a lot of the TIS Olds horns around compared to other manufacturers of.that era.

[Kingfan]

Yep, compact counterweight looking more like a megaphone than a trombone.