I'm wondering about the sizing of modern mouthpieces relative to older cornets, particularly a circa 1950 Olds recording cornet. Would a modern "off the shelf" cornet mouthpiece fit properly, or be "close enough", or is a special adapter or horn modification required?

At Olds Central several fixes are offered. 1--Wrap tape around the shank so it fits in the receiver. 2--Buy and old large shaft Olds mouthpiece (have it buffed and plated if necessary). 3--Use a Yamaha Flugelhorn mouthpiece (cheap, readily available and they work). 4--Get someone to build you one of the proper size. There are several companies who have the Olds Large Shank mouthpieces in their catalogue.

My way to cure this problem is to remove the receiver from a 'sacrificial' cornet that is made to accept a standard Bach shank mouthpiece. Turn it in a machine lathe to the required taper to fit in the elderly Olds and use that as a spacer to shim up a standard Bach shank mouthpiece. If done properly there should be no more than 3/8" of adaptor showing when installed.


OLDLOU>>

With the VC series of Mark Curry's mouthpieces now available with the larger Olds shank as a production option, I'm overjoyed with the selection and the mouthpieces I bought. The larger shank is a production option, costing a bit more than a standard mouthpiece, but much less than a full custom job.

Originally Posted by ChopsGone

With the VC series of Mark Curry's mouthpieces now available with the larger Olds shank as a production option, I'm overjoyed with the selection and the mouthpieces I bought. The larger shank is a production option, costing a bit more than a standard mouthpiece, but much less than a full custom job.

I have used the Curry pieces as well. They work well!

You can have your music shop retailer order a mouthpiece with the proper shack from Bach, it takes about 5 weeks and my retailer is charging me $55.00

Thanks for all the pointers on how to address this. I'm about to have an old Olds (really sad shape) sent off for an evaluation for a restoration. If it turns out that it's not too far gone to be saved, I'll likely go the Curry route if the horn is a "player" when I get it back. If it's not so great, I'll probably try to pick up an old Olds mouthpiece off of ebay or something just so it "looks right".

I'm really hoping this doesn't turn out to be a wall-hanger when it's done.

Originally Posted by entrancing1

You can have your music shop retailer order a mouthpiece with the proper shack from Bach, it takes about 5 weeks and my retailer is charging me $55.00

I was told by Mouthpiece Express that Bach (post-strike) no longer offers the O-shank as a special order for Olds cornets. They steered me to a Curry piece.

The old Olds shank is listed as available in the current online Vincent Bach Catalog and I ordered one three weeks ago, I will report back when it arrives.

Reference page 11 of Vincent Bach mouthpiece manual: http://www.bachbrass.com/pdf/AV6001%...e%20Manual.pdf Page 12 of the PDF for info on special order shanks including the old Olds cornet shank.