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I was visiting a friend this past weekend and he asked, would you like a Sousaphone? A hard thing to turn down, so we dug it out of his attic and I looked at this very black questionable Sousaphone. Well initially it was questionable. I took it home and washed it up a bit. I learned it is a Holton BBb with a 26 inch bell. The serial number is 93568. Since the Bell engraving and the marking of piston 2 say Holton Elkhorn, Wis. I suspect it was made after 1918. The valves are in perfect shape!! All of the valve slides are stuck, but the tuning slide is free. The bell is hard to get on the collar (a bit tight). I suspect there may be a bell mix involved. Anyway, it is now my project horn. I would appreciate any information on the date on manufacture, how to make the bell fit better and any other "constructive" comments.

Congrats! It's difficult to beat 'free'!

Thanks for determining the date of manufacture!!! Wow, down to the quarter year. About the time of the stock market crash........

Now about that bell fitting on the collar, any ideas???

I gotta find new friends...

Reminds me of the Frank Holton 130 I used to own. Lovely horn. I never gaged but, but I remember the bore size being larger than my 40K but smaller than my 36J.

Good luck!

Thanks for the tip on cleaning and candle wax. I'll try that. I did talk to Lee Stofer about this horn. He's a smart man and knows I'm really an Eb guy. He and I are discussing a trade for an Eb helicon or sousaphone. He's pretty convincing.

hmm...
http://www.horn-u-copia.net/serial/holtonlist.html says 1927. It indicates that they ran different series of serial numbers during several years, 1918-1931 undoubtedly due to having 2 separate factories (Elkhorn and Chicago).

http://www.saxpics.com/?v=ser&manID=8 verifies the 2 factories, two runs of numbers.


Holtonloyalist.com agrees with elephant. But, then, Connloyalist is pretty screwed up, too.