Where do they find these?

[djwesp]

I am not ENTIRELY sure, however, I think that the ad you speak of is an outsourced ad from latinvox. Macy's has started using Latinvox extensively as their marketing and advertising agency. Macy's has done so to target a latino audience and also because Latinvox outsources many of the commercial and advertising work itself to 3rd world latin american countries.

There is a very good chance this advertisement was not produced stateside. The spanish version of the ad has been playing for considerably longer.

[Donn]

There is a very good chance this advertisement was not produced stateside. The spanish version of the ad has been playing for considerably longer.

Which sort of begs the question, where did they find it? I know if you wander off the beaten path sometimes there are strange and wonderful band scenes with their own modern instruments basically unknown in the US - the Spanish cornet band comes to mind. Didn't see it - piston, or rotary valve?

[imperialbari]

Haven’t seen the ad in question.

Is the helicon with pistons and rotors?

Czech helicons with rotors are still in use in continental Europe. Around the turn of millennium German eBay was flooded with Russian made rotor helicons bought from Russian military surplus storages. So the market over here has been rich in cheaper helicons.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

It had rotors and was one of the more oval shaped helicons, not perfectly round.

Although the more oval ones with all of the tubing, but for the large back bow, in front of the player are based on a patent from before 1890 by Schediwa of Odessa in Ukraine, most of those seen on the current second hand market are Cerveny’s. The Russian army surplus helicons were circular and often with huge funnel bells with very little flare.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

Can the said ad be seen on the web?

Klaus

[Art Hovey]

I just saw it this evening while playing a gig in a seafood joint. I think it was during a hospital show called "Mercy". The helicon was eastern european, and appeared to be new or recently overhauled, with clear lacquer. I imagined that it must have been filmed somewhere in europe; they probably saved a lot of money doing it that way.

[Rick Denney]

I saw the ad last night, and my wife will confirm that the oddity of seeing a eastern European rotary helicon in an ad for an American department store warranted much commentary. It wasn't Mercy, it was Gray's Anatomy. I could only stand about 15 minutes of it before retiring to the other room. I guess that would make it Thursday night, not last night.

Klaus, it was a pretty standard Cerveny (or that style) rotary helicon, in Bb. Not huge--maybe a 15 or 16" bell--like the 4/4 rotary tubas by Cerveny from about 25 years ago.

Rick "whose wife yawned" Denney

[sailn2ba]

Well, I've been attracted by those Cerveny helicons for years. Do they play as well as the uprights, like the 681?

[Roger Lewis]

Well I know a gentleman who is getting ready to sell an old Conn Helicon - BBb, 4 piston valves and it is in very good shape. I don't know what he will ask for it but I played it the other day and it wasn't bad. The valves were badly out of alignment and that is being corrected, but it is in excellent condition. It comes with the original Conn Giant mouthpiece as well. I guess the model would be the 32K. It needs a good polishing, but that is also being attended to. I'm not sure where he found it, but people get them at flea markets in the middle of nowhere or from antique shops that don't know what they have.

If I were going hunting for York number 3, I would probably start in the atics of the old firehouses in Pennsylvania. Back in the old days just about every firehouse had a band, and a lot of the instruments they used are still stashed in the atics of these old buildings.

Just a thought.

Roger

[Donn]

Well, I've been attracted by those Cerveny helicons for years. Do they play as well as the uprights, like the 681?

I haven't played a 681, and strictly speaking haven't played a Cerveny helicon either but have Amati F and Lignatone Eb helicons that I suppose were made in the same factory and are essentially similar (but for the old style clock spring valves.) The F has better ergonomics and intonation - if you want to march with an F tuba, this is one of your better options; the rarely seen Eb is significantly bigger and has a bigger and maybe a little sweeter sound. Neither come with adjustable bits, either they fit you or they don't.

[Dan Schultz]

Apparently, there are advertising agency 'ratholes' around the country that have every prop that one can imagine. Sort of like might exist for restaurant chains that feature stuff hanging on the walls. Our local TGI Fridays had a full-sized racing scull suspended from the ceiling... oars and all. I've heard that there are folks who do nothing other than scour antique shops around the country looking for 'interesting' stuff. My next-to-last Land's End catalog had a helicon (quite different) pictured in the children's section. I was going to scan the image and post it but the catalog got trashed before I could get around to it. I looked on-line and couldn't find the image in their electronic catalog.