F.E. Olds 1939 Special Cornet Serial #6805 with “The Olds” Bell.

Description

This is a somewhat unusual horn that I bought a couple of months ago as a project. I have too many things going on right now so I need to let it go to someone else. It’s an Olds Special Cornet from 1939 with a “The Olds” Bell. The lacquer of the bell and that of the horn appear to match so it seems like this was part of the horn originally not added later but it is hard to say.
The bell is dented at the crook in two places and right where it meets the valve block. These places are both really easy to access and should be a simple repair. The horn is remarkably free of dents or dings elsewhere. The lacquer appears to be original and is incredible shape. Feels like about 90% intact and has aged to the most beautiful honey gold you can imagine. There are just two spots on the side of the first and third valve where the nickel plating is very worn… but otherwise it’s cosmetically pretty amazing.
The other issues to be dealt with is that one of the solder points where third valve tuning slide meets the main tuning slide needs to be re-connected. Those slides are also stuck. And the mouthpiece is stuck.
The valves are in great condition, the compression is very good to excellent and even with the ridiculously shallow ancient Holton 73a mouthpiece (I normally play really deep pieces) the horn plays incredibly…. To me closer to a recording/super recording sound than the super or military model. More sweet and round… closer to true cornet than trumpet. I get the sense that with a cleaning, addressing the issues with the solder and dents + getting a more reasonable cornet piece on it.. it’s going to be an amazing player.
I also forgot to mention that this has the complete intact set of stop rods that are often missing on these vintage horns.
This style of the olds special cornet only existed through the war. It has a really beautiful unique wrap and the extra long valves that make it very easy to hold and handle.