
Looked okay, but missing a lot of pieces! Tuning slide, valve buttons, a goose neck and bit set...some cracks in tubing etc...this was going to be a big project.

and that bell...eek....that was initially a deal breaker that I decided to take a plunge on anyway.


Fast forward to me driving to Ontario to pick her up from Greg Hendrickson of Greg's Brass & Woodwind Services near Toronto. Wow! He bravely took on the job of straightening the bell before I picked it up, and did it with a minimal amount of scarring and plating wear. He didn't crack it...don't ask me how! This is how it looked when I picked it up in Ontario. Thanks Greg! Amazing work on a big heavy 30 inch bell.


Took it from Ontario to board member Tabor of Massachusetts who partially disassembled it and bravely did the body work and some patching and sent the valve set away to get custom parts from Beeman Brass Works of Ohio. Thanks Tabor!
Mr. Beeman made a beautiful custom goose neck for it that looks stock (no a 20K would not work), replaced the valve stems and buttons, and gave me a new main tuning slide. Man oh man....couldn't wait to play it and it's all thanks to his skill in making parts for an instrument around 90 years old with weird tubing dimension. Thanks Mr. Beeman!!!
Tabor expertly reassembled the horn, polished her up.... and voila!

Holy &%$! does it play even, with her worn valves. I think they heard me in the next town over. Thick valve oil is all she needed. Played it in a Memorial Day parade today and I was thrilled with the tuning and response of this old beast.
For your curiosity, here is the 690 next to a 20K from 1945. The 20K is around 29 lbs, the jumbo is around 34.

and here is a picture from her catalog.

Final word....she is not as large, heavy, and cumbersome as my Conn jumbo 46K. She's bigger than a Martin Mammoth and York Monster though. She is in the Goldilocks zone of not tapering too fast, but when she does she really does....and thus sounds amazing.
She had her day in the sun today.
Literally.
It was very hot.
Thanks to all the wonderfully skilled tubenet folks who brought this horn back to life! Bravo.