Early 20th Century King Bell with modern slide

[MrHCinDE]

I have just acquired an unusual horn with an old King bell section adapted with a modern slide receiver and K&H BvL slide.

According to the previous owner, the bell section is from around 1912-1914, the pictures I‘ve found in old H.N.White seem to match that so it seems quite plausible to me. It‘s a 7“ bell in silver plate btw.

The modern K&H slide is really smooth and quick, one of the better slides I’ve tried. There are no issues tuning to modern pitch, A=440/442 is no problem.

It plays really sweet and silky if you take it easy, getting robust but not harsh if you give it a bit more gas.

Has anyone experimented with putting a modern slide onto an old King (or other) horns of a similar vintage? I think the result in this case is a very easily playable horn with a lot of character. Blending with a section might be interesting but 1st in Bigband, small combo or trad jazz should be right at home.

[ithinknot]

Yup. I have a King 1450 Artist Solo Silvertone bell section from the first year or so of the sterling bells (1927/8). Original from the neckpipe onwards, but with a modern 3B bell brace/receiver fitted. (Originally, they came with a .461/481 dual bore slide.)

From a distance, you’d think it’s a 2BSS, but it’s really really not.

This design was introduced as the 1106 New Proportion Utility Model (at that stage still supplied in high and low pitch) and then became the Artist Solo a couple of years later... 1400 for the yellow, 1450 for the Silvertone.

Neckpipe is the 3B taper, tuning slide is dual radius (.650 to .765 ODs on the crook) but with internally tapered legs (!!), bell is the 3B mandrel, starting at the same stem measurement but only spun out to 7” (so slightly shorter overall).

With the 3B slide on it, it feels more or less “3B sized” but with a particularly smooth feel up top.

Intonation tendencies are rather different to the 3B... vertically “better” up to the 8th partial, but then high C and D are rather flat... not a problem if you play off the bumpers, but dangerous if you do. (With a Jiggs slide, the tuning is basically the same... maybe the “dualness” of the .461/481 original would make more of a difference, but it seems it’s not just the change from small to .508 that affects how things line up.)

Inevitably, there’s no escaping the vintageness of the 7” bell character (though, being sterling, it’s a full, saturated brightness rather than getting razzy) but it’s a really cool sound, and would make an amazing lead horn for the right person.

This is clearly (part of) where the 3B design came from. Neckpipe and bell mandrel stayed the same, and the tuning slide became single radius to match the 2B design language, and was made simpler while covering the same basic range: tapered leg/.650-.765 OD crook/tapered leg became .594 ID leg/.620-.770 OD crook/.754 ID leg. It’s possible that this was intended to fix the 9/10th partials somewhat, at the cost of leaving the 6th rather sharper... but it can’t have hurt that it was also easier to manufacture.

I’d be interested to know how this 1410/1450 bell section corresponds to the 1118/1410/1460 Symphony models, which were .508/537 dual slides, 8 or 8.25 bells...