tom turner

Well . . . a rare and valuable cornet slipped though on eBay tonight well under the radar . . . thanks to a poorly worded ad!

The ad read: "Olds Cornet Vintage Brass Horn, Case Los Angeles -1960s"

WRONG! In the 1960's era Olds case . . . rested a very late 1930 or very early 1931 Olds cornet simply called "The Olds!"

This makes it an extremely early Olds instrument that was made to be a very top, pro-line instrument. Nick DeCarlis of the vintagecornets.com site uses his to gig on and has never found another cornet he likes better.

A forum reader alerted me to the horn and I gave him advice on it. He then replied that he would have to pass on the horn.

I had no interest in undertaking a horn that would require restoration but meant to let a few of you know about it . . . then my wife got on the compooter tonight to do a project and the ad finished . . . at under $200!

Read 'em and weep:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MEWA:IT

This horn needs a lot of work but could have made a gorgeous restored cornet. A real nice "The Olds" cornet went on eBay last year for about $1,500.

Hopefully the winner is an eagle-eyed reader who understands the cost of restoration and also will appreciate what this horn deserves to become again!

Sincerely,

Tom Turner

sdleman

Tom,

I was the lucky bidder; I was on the lookout only because I have enjoyed your postings and the web page of Nick DeCarlis. By the way, Nick is strongly against restoring old Olds cornets and feels they play better with a minimum amount of cleaning and restoration. He refuses to chemically clean his hammered bell The Olds. However, for this price I had to take a chance on this one that will need some work. I actually have another The Olds cornet, s/n 1435 which has an original standard size shank mouthpiece receiver, not the larger Olds one (I have the original straight sided mouthpiece), which I will keep original out of respect to Nick. It has some engraving on the bell similar to an Olds Recording and only says F. E. Olds on the bell. Very unusual. Plays great, needs a couple dents removed. Like Nicks, it is the medium bore, ~.453. The Olds Standards have a similar wrap but a longer valve column and most of them are .460. I confess to also having an Olds Super Recording with the .468 bore.

I am very appreciative of having a horn like this and promise to look after the care and feeding and give it regular exercise.

Best wishes,

Steve