Found this cool horn recently. 1958 Reynolds Contempora with 8.5" bell and .520" (marketed as "large" at the time,
but a decidedly modern "medium") bore, model 30-L tenor trombone.
"Tone ring," bronze alloy bell, nickel silver trim, space race era engraving and nickel silver accents. Wouldn't look too out of place in the backseat of a '58 Chevy.
The lacquer on the nickel silver parts has significantly yellowed. Is there anything to be done about that besides stripping it?
I always thought the "R" counterweight looked cool. There is one on Ebay right now with both a valve section and handslide... too rich for my blood though.
gocsick wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2024 6:35 pm
I always thought the "R" counterweight looked cool. There is one on Ebay right now with both a valve section and handslide... too rich for my blood though.
I wonder if anyone more knowledgeable than me knows the distinction between which models were marked Roth and which were Reynolds?
Gets a bit hairy, but Roth was the name of both the student line produced by the company and also one of the co-founders of the company along with Scherl. More info:
Blake knows that I'm a big fan of vintage cases in good condition.
Reynolds and Olds valve trombones were similar earlier, and later became pretty much identical. I have a beautiful condition Olds (valve trombone) with a really nice hard case, and I mated it with a nice Reynolds playing slide - for when I need a slide.
I paid a stupid low price for all those things together, and it was a little bit too inexpensive to pressure me into flipping it for profit. I've used that instrument quite a few times.
If somebody wants to go to YouTube and find the New Orleans Jazz Ramblers recording of High Society, I used the instrument described in the previous paragraph with its Reynolds slide to play that track/song. I also played tuba on that as well as on everything else on that album. We recorded it late and the trombone player had another job, so I went back to the studio the next morning and put a trombone line into that tune.
... I also harmonized the high woodwinds for that section you will hear in the "trio" stanza. I don't know how to use any music writing programs and never did, so I sat on my couch while I was watching a movie and scribbled the three parts out - one by one - on manuscript paper - the night before - with a Bic pen. Before anyone oohs or ahhs over my "big ears", if-and-when you listen to it, you will hear that it's a very easy melody to harmonize.
Here. It's easy to find:
(This was the only dixieland thing on the entire CD. I think we were trying to demonstrate our so-called "versatility".)
@arpthark
If you listened, the tuba is the infamous Buescher C helicon. That's a damn good instrument. It's in Oregon now.
Speaking of Olds, I also picked up a not-as-cool but still interesting Olds "Special" trombone with a really, really high serial number. Higher than most serial number charts go (A483XX) and the second-highest number on a user-created compendium of Olds serial numbers I found which pinpoints its manufacture right around the end of the factory closing in July, 1979.
"Closet queen," nickel plated, great condition, excellent slide, no wear, beautiful condition case, kinda neat but not super duper vintage or desirable, probably. Older versions of this model sport the two-tone bell, but this one is just nickel plated.
Both the Olds Special and the (original nicer version) King Tempo were put out there to compete with the Conn Connstellation. That was the time before bright silver plating had become a thing, and nickel plating was a thing.
Olds special was basically a nickel plated Ambassador, but it looked cool.
While not exactly a scholarly effort, the book “Zig Kanstul: Last of the Great Masters” contains a bunch of history and perspective about Olds and Reynolds as well as other companies leading up to Zig Kanstul beginning his business. It’s an easy, quick reading book that’s pretty interesting if you’re into such things.
bort2.0 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 20, 2024 8:38 am
Your kid is getting big quickly!
He sure is! And he managed a great big fat low Eb out of this Reynolds Eb sousaphone I have the other day. My wife was sitting around the corner in the driveway and said to me, "I thought that was you!"
Now that I think about it, maybe that was a knock on my own playing...
