Posted by Matt Walters on November 11, 1999 at 08:21:23:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Holton 6/4 Conspiracy Theory posted by Sam Gnagey on November 10, 1999 at 10:14:33:
Hi Sam,
For what it's worth. I own a 1912 vintage giant Holton 3 valve uprigt BBb. A 22" bell flair, but the same bottom bow, and top branch as the BB345's from the 60's. I have to think they just took existing mandrels to make BB345's and later the CC345's. And I've noticed 2 different versions of original CC345's.
I remember asking some Holton Shop forman to make a bell for me in the early 80's (before they started to say they distroyed the bell mandrell). I offered him $1000 (todays dollars about $2000+ dollars?). He said, "Look, it means taking someone off production of French Horns and we can't make them fast enough as it is." "It would cost us more than $1000 in lost production to dig out a bell mandrel, stop the french horn bell spinning, setup the tuba bell mandrell, spin it, break down, then start up production of the french horn bells again."
You can't blame a business for choosing a profit. Once a product has been out of production for 8 years (I believe), the manufacturer no longer has to provide replacement parts. Matt