THAT's an Olds?

[Heavy_Metal]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Olds-tuba-NO10 ... 0005.m1851" target="_blank

[Paul Scott]

Yes, that's correct but I think it was in the late 90s. But I don't recall them selling rotary tubas, (or any tubas). I bought a few baritones from them for my school system back then. They were marketed to schools in New Jersey where they were based.

[Donn]

Right, the NOxxx stuff is just someone applying the name they bought, as a stencil, and that could include some piston instruments as well. Recent stuff that looks nothing like anything Olds ever might have made. There were tubas in there, for sure. This one looks better than the others I've seen pictures of - I mean, at least it's full size, like a 683 or copy.

Bach made some use of the Olds tooling to make tubas that look just like an O99 with different lacquer. I have a distinct recollection of admiring 2 Bach tubas in the brochure at the instrument repair old guy's shop, local Bach dealer, back in the mid '80s; one of them might have been the Mercedes O-99-alike, and the other was a bigger thing with a detachable bell.

[greenbean]

They had some trombones, too, that looked to be Chinese.

[Heavy_Metal]

If I have this right...??

(snip)

In the pre-China years, NEMC was having "Olds" stenciled on to Czech-made instruments......and someone correct anything here, please, that is incorrect.

https://www.nemc.com

Makes sense, as the tuba in question looks like a Cerveny.

[Ace]

If I have this right...??

In 1980 - when F.E. Olds & Son (Fullerton, California) was shuttered, I'm thinking that Vincent Bach purchased some of the tooling (none of which, apparently, has been used by Bach since the mid-1980's), and a mail-order music store, NEMC (an obvious play on "MENC"...??), bought the name. In the pre-China years, NEMC was having "Olds" stenciled on to Czech-made instruments...
...and someone correct anything here, please, that is incorrect.

https://www.nemc.com

You are correct, Joe. The Olds plant in Fullerton was closed December 7, 1979. By then, Olds associate Foster Reynolds had died. Also long gone from Olds was Zig Kanstul who left in the early 1970's to manage the nearby Benge plant and then his own Kanstul Company. I still remember my tour in 1950 of the F E Olds plant in Los Angeles, before the move to Fullerton in 1954.

Ace