Buescher True Tone - Info? Value?

[Ryan_Beucke]

A buddy of mine who's a band teacher had this donated to his school along with a bunch of other instruments. I haven't gotten my hands on it, but he says it's in basically new condition. He thinks it's from around 1917 or so. He's probably going to ask for permission from the person who donated it to sell it to purchase other instruments for the school, since it hardly seems fair to unleash it on even the most careful students. Does anyone have any information on these horns? Any idea what the value might be? There's very little info online.

[Ryan_Beucke]

Here's another shot.

[Kirley]

Wow!
That is some wacky valve routing. Leadpipe enters #2!
Thanks for sharing. Sorry, I'm no help.

[lost]

Ryan thanks for sharing. I agree with the band director to sell them and raise funds. Many of these old instruments aren't even in modern pitch. That is in amazing condition so I imagine a collector would love it.

Tru tone was a label on their instruments and mouthpieces made between 191x until 192x...dates may vary. They seemed to be the "better" instruments. I'm sure others know more than I.

[bloke]

- It appears to have been restored.
- I don't believe I've seen a two-piece mouthpipe before.
- What is the condition of pistons and casings?
- In various configurations (3-valve/4-valve/double-bell) the intonation offered by these (in my experience) is "curious".

[Donn]

Wow!
That is some wacky valve routing. Leadpipe enters #2!
Thanks for sharing. Sorry, I'm no help.

Interesting, (though no help here either) - the 2nd valve shall be 1st. Note that the 1st connects directly to the third, and I assume also to the 2nd on the back side: it's really the middle valve for some reason, just transposed to the 1st position because no one would want to relearn the valve positions. I think. Why would they do all this?

[imperialbari]

Which was the purpose of routing the airstream through the pistons in the sequence of 2-1-3?

Klaus

[MusicSmiths]

Stumbled across this Conn Conn-Queror cornet (1904) with the same sort of tubing idea. Perhaps has something to do with HP/LP and tuning slide options???

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Conn-Conn-Quero ... SwBLlVMri5" target="_blank" target="_blank

[bisontuba]

Courtesy of the Sax Museum...click on # 15 & 16....

http://www.saxophone.org/museum/publications/id/516

[imperialbari]

Interesting!

Only I cannot get the text low on the page #15 to display in a resolution that I can read.

With the alto horns mentioned at the center of the page #15 four options are mentioned. 3 I get, but what is a deflecting bell?

Klaus

[Donn]

I hate fancy interfaces like that! Is this http://www.saxophone.org/uploads/museum/71/33471_1500_1997.jpg more amenable?

Deflecting is just another name for bell front, I suppose a more accurate one as they're not really constrained to point forward but can be rotated to any direction.

[imperialbari]

Thanks for the better link!

Apparently the purpose is a better geometry of the passages through the pistons. To understand how that works I would need to have the instrument in my hands. Or a very thorough photo documentation by someone truly understanding how this concept is executed.

I accept the explanation of deflecting in a bell context. Only I wonder that the first of the 4 options for alto horns then is called ’bell front’. Is the difference that the bell front is fixed and the deflecting bell is detachable?

Klaus

[Donn]

I accept the explanation of deflecting in a bell context. Only I wonder that the first of the 4 options for alto horns then is called ’bell front’. Is the difference that the bell front is fixed and the deflecting bell is detachable?

Could be ... I guess another very unlikely possibility is that "bell front" means "marching", trumpet style configuration. It's interesting that this one is "Solo", may mean something or may not.

[Heliconer]

It's an "Epoch" Model. Very cool!

[windshieldbug]

"Epoch" valves were intended to put all valve passages and slides on similar planes to minimize sharp turns. The intention was to simulate the slide of a trombone as much as possible. Well enough for a cornet, but the 90° turns you need for larger instruments kind of cancels that "feature". They soon realized that the horns pretty much played like any others and went to "normal" valves.

[Ryan_Beucke]

Wow, thanks for all the info everyone!

Bloke, what makes you think it was restored? The finish?

I wish I could get the horn in my hands to give it a good run through and check the intonation and valve wear. Maybe I'll take a trip.

Does anyone have an idea of what it might be worth, or where to start shopping it around if they decide to go that route?

[bloke]

Wow, thanks for all the info everyone!

Bloke, what makes you think it was restored? The finish?

Nearly unquestionably.

I've owned three config's of this:

- double bell
- four valve
- three valve

They are very cool, and very similar in size to modern euphoniums, but - again - playing an even scale is challenging.

[thejester10276]

This horn with the exact same routing popped up on ebay, minus the 'w' tuning slide and high grade restoration work
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Buesche ... Swq8BZbfjJ