Looking for a bell for an Olds-99 or a substitute

[Jperry1466]

I have a school band director friend with almost no budget, who has this tuba (see pic) that has had the bell trashed. I picked it up and it plays surprisingly very well, other than a "slight rattle" in the bell. I have read that some other 3/4 brands are a rebrand of this horn (or vice versa). What other bells might work with it? Or what is close enough that a really good repairman could adapt it? When I say no budget, I mean this is one of his newer horns, and the serial number dates it at 1969. Yes, it is a really poor little country school, and he has to use this horn, trashed bell or not. He does have some repair budget.

[the elephant]

They are getting pretty hard to find, but the Old Ultratone and Duratone contrabass bugles use the same bell. The Ultratones had chrome plating over nickel over brass. It is very hard to deal with chrome and it has to be sanded off, but you could just sand where it needs to be soldered. (I have done this a few times.)

They are made on the same mandrel and the fit is excellent.

Also, the bugle is the same bore as the O-99 tuba, so you would have a bunch of braces, ferrules and inner/outer slide tube sets, one piston valve, and one excellent .656" rotary valve made by Bernie Marston for your parts box. I have a set of eight of these great, little rotary valves that I plan on using on a few upcoming projects. Again, though: everything is chromed.

Now, the Duratone horns — which are very rare — had a brushed nickel plating. Essentially they were the nicer Ultratones, prepped for chrome plate with the nickel plating, and then given a satin finish to the nickel with some different engraving, This cost a little less, but the price was not that much better and they tarnished over time. Nickel is hard to hand polish, so the chromed bugles (which never need any serious polishing) were by far the more commonly made and sold horns.

The thing to consider is that if you can locate a Duratone you have one massive PITA job of sanding that can be removed from your list of stuff to do when you part the thing out. Other than the plating the horns are identical.

I know this is not what you were looking for, but these horns *do* still exist all over the place, especially up in the Midwest. Very old corps that have stayed active and that have upgraded their bugles over the years will frequently have some of these buried in their storage facilities as they are really hard to sell and have a low value. Not even drum corps want these old, small "blat weasels". If a corps still uses two-valved G horns the contras are usually DEG two-piston horns or the much better two-piston GG King K90s.

If you ever locate an Ultratone contra, there are likely several more hidden away in the same building, so ask the seller to poke around to look for complete horns or parts. These can be a treasure trove of original Olds parts, which, as you know, are absolutely scarce nowadays.

info

[bloke]

note: “OBO”

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324722812351

NOTE:
Once the bell is swapped out, you might offer the trashed bell on the frankentuba facebook page for sale.
Someone - with a sousaphone (perhaps E-flat…??) desiring to convert it to a helicon - might find that chunk handy and worth buying…
… particularly if their sousaphone bell flare unsolders from the sousaphone’s bell elbow.
(Trimming off the trashed flare would probably reduce shipping or mailing cost.)

[Jperry1466]

They are getting pretty hard to find, but the Old Ultratone and Duratone contrabass bugles use the same bell. The Ultratones had chrome plating over nickel over brass. It is very hard to deal with chrome and it has to be sanded off, but you could just sand where it needs to be soldered. (I have done this a few times.)

They are made on the same mandrel and the fit is excellent.

Thanks! This is great info. I wish I knew how to find one of these. I'm sure they would be extremely rare here in Texas, and I don't have many out of state contacts any more.

[Jperry1466]

note: “OBO”

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324722812351

I thought I had done a search for one of these on ebay. You always seem to find the impossible-to-find. I will approach my friend about making an offer. He will still have to pay for labor on top of it, and he already spent almost 1/3 of his entire repair budget ($600 out of $2,000) to replace a missing Conn 20K Naked Lady bell with an Orion sousaphone bell that was a perfect fit, plus neck and bits. This would be well worth the cost, but I know he is concerned about having enough for all the instruments to last the year. I may make him an offer for the tuba if he is willing. I could use a more portable horn for short outdoor Christmas gigs.

[bloke]

note: “OBO”

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324722812351

You always seem to find the impossible-to-find.

That's what I do.
(I actually have a couple of them setting around here, but - if I turn loose of them - what would ~I~ - then - use to replace trashed Olds/Reynolds/Bach/Conn tuba bells, eh...??)