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Whaley & Royce Sousaphone
Posted: Mon May 24, 2021 12:37 pm
by Bnloewen
Re: Whaley & Royce Sousaphone
Posted: Mon May 24, 2021 9:27 pm
by Tubajug
I haven't heard of them, but it looks like it's in whaley good condition!
Sorry...I couldn't resist...
Re: Whaley & Royce Sousaphone
Posted: Mon May 24, 2021 9:55 pm
by the elephant
Whaley-Royce was a Canadian firm that holds the honor of inventing the contrabass bugle in the very late 1950s. It was held like a trumpet (in front of you!) and did not catch on. Getzen and Olds produced MUCH better (better being very relative in this case) and the Whaley-Royce contra disappeared after only a year or two.
This horn features valves lacking 50% of their plating. This is an instant No-Go for me as the horn is not worth having these valves rebuilt unless you are a collector. (The casing set would have to be removed, involving a complete disassembly and reassembly, which is well past the point of diminishing returns IMHO.) The bell also looks like it has had the ever-loving snot buffed out of it. I would guess the bell to be *fragile* unless you can drive out to take a look at it. I am betting that Scotch-Brite finish also hides some very thin metal that was buffed and sanded to death before the finish was scrubbed into being.
It might play really well, but I tend to doubt it. These guys were not producing gems or you would hear more about them.