Horn dorn, St Louis edition: Update

[eupher61]

My Thursday purchases, after a spontaneous road trip:
The helicon plays very well in tune, using 2 bits. 33# in the cover, which is purely a cover, not a padded bag.
The Conn is really sweet. The valves are smooth, that's one benefit of no compression...but I love the sound and feel. I may not do anything about the valves, they LOOK good at least. serial #2225xx puts it at 1925. Pitch is much better than I expected at first glance. It needs a smaller shank mpc than I had with me, but I have two possibilities waiting to be tried.
The Conn 3v baritone that Mark Jones posted about, in the For Sale section, is amazing. I wish I'd seen that ad 6 weeks ago, that baritone would be mine. It plays that well. Not a euphonium sound, but a bright, clear, wonderful American baritone sound. Valves are good, case is good. Small shank.

The other instruments...meh. The whatever Eb "helicon" is a sousaphone converted to a raincatcher, it hardly played. Good fodder for parts. The valve trombone is a compact Bb valve trombone, I'd guess it's c. 1900. The York BBb helicon is interesting, but I couldn't reach the mouthpipe with fewer than 3 bits, and that made the pitch totally wacky. It's c. 1918-19, per Musictrader.com. The other Eb helicon has "[something} Piston Chicago" engraved---I can't remember the first word. When I first saw it, I thought "Disten", but nope. It could be very interesting for a period instrument, I'd guess it's pre-1900. The Bb cornet is beautiful, and would probably be a fun instrument, but it has major playing problems right now. I don't think it's the pistons switched around, but something is funky. Still, it has a lot of potential.
She also has a very nice looking mountain dulcimer and a 4 string tenor banjo. The banjo could be a Slingerland, but no ID is on it anywhere. It's a near dead ringer for a Slingeland Maybelle plectrum I'm familiar with.

If you're wanting a GREAT 3v American baritone, call Char. It's well worth it.

Conn Eb.jpg

Helicons.jpg

[bisontuba]

Congratulations!
Mark

[Bob Kolada]

Cool horns!

[eupher61]

um....I'll get better pictures too. I don't know why they're cropped here, they weren't cropped on my phone. strange.

[skeath]

I have an F Helicon that seems identical to yours. It has no markings, but I felt certain it was a Cerveny, based on the design. The age is unknown, but probably also from around 1900. If you put up another picture, I can verify that.

Regards,

SK

[eupher61]

Sandy, mine has been worked over a bit, a larger and slightly longer bell, and some tubing added to the main tuning slide. It made a huge difference with pitch. This is before that was done.