#144

The Olds Trumpet Serial Number 144

From Alan Rouse, early 2000’s

I had the great pleasure to meet Mr. Stan Ebin, owner of The Olds trumpet serial number 144!


Stan was in town visiting his son-in-law, and they came by the house for a couple of hours. We had a fine time talking about Olds, looking over my little collection, and playing his trumpet.

The horn had a few patches, and had been reinforced in a couple of spots, and had been relacquered. Still, it was a very nice looking horn and maintained the basic character of an Olds horn. Of all my horns, I think it played most like a Super (probably somewhere between a Special and a Super). Interestingly, it had no mechanism for adjusting either the first or third valve slide for intonation. Instead they had made 3rd slide a bit flat so that low D and D# were pretty close to in-tune, just as the introductory brochure claims. It did seem to me that the horn was not difficult to play in tune despite the absence of these gadgets. It was a narrow-styled horn, with the bell attached directly to the valve casings (but with a knob between the leadpipe and valve casings). The slide sleeves were nickel-silver, but the valve casings were all brass. The horn had the old style top valve caps, with no felts, and the nipples on the bottom valve caps. It had the brackets for the switch-to-A slide stop, but the rod was missing.

According to information supplied by Dale Olson, this horn was delivered on August 29, 1929. It was built with a valve, leadpipe, and bell size of LM. It was originally a finish #1 (polished brass), and was initially sold to a Wm. Pohle.

Stan is a fine gentleman, and I thoroughly enjoyed his visit!