Posted by dp on November 10, 2002 at 14:20:39:
In Reply to: Holton 345 survey/census posted by Daniel C. Oberloh on November 10, 2002 at 04:33:26:
ok...a history of my Holton as told to me by its only other owner.
Mr. Jacobs had ordered a bell-front tuba from Holton when my friend (we'll call him "Stratos") was a student at Northwestern in the ealy 70's. Mr. Jacob's idea was that the recording venue at that time was unfavorable to him and that the engineers were only placing one mic for the low brass, in front of the trombones. When he went to pick up the horn, it was a standard design.
At his lesson one day Stratos found Jake fuming and mumbling all through the lesson, and finally asked him what was wrong. When told that Jacobs was stuck with a horn which didn't fit his order, Stratos gallantly offered to take it off his hands. Mr. Jacobs brightened up considerably and offered the horn for cost. Ready? $1200.00 (1972.)
Maybe 10 years later, Stratos realized need for a fifth valve. Jake put him in touch with
Peter Hirsbrunner via Bob Tucci. Hirsbrunner sent the parts to add the fifth valve which Stratos did. After doing some playing including the New Orleans Philharmonic and also Shreveport, Stratos moved to Dallas where today he is a well-known professional player freelancing and playing in a number of groups including the Dallas Wind Symphony. This Holton was used in session recordings with the DWS (7 or 8 recordings at least.) In 1990 Don Little used this horn in the Berlin Radio Symphony for a year. Stratos taught at North Texas during Don's sabbatical. Gerhard Meinl (Meinl-Weston, B & S, VMI) did a cosmetic overhaul on it while the horn was in Yurrop, and in return, Gerhard used it as the template for the prototype "2165." (