1952 Olds Mendez Bb trumpet

In the 1940's Rafael Mendez began a relationship with Olds.  He appeared in a number of ads and publications and in 1952, Olds introduced the Mendez model trumpet.     The new trumpet was  loosely modeled after Mendez' French Besson. The Mendez model has unique braces to all other Olds models and has accents reminiscent of French trumpets of the day.       

It has been widely reported that when Olds introduced this new model, they made 1,000 of them.   Data in the Olds Register backs this up, with 48  Mendez trumpet entries between serial number 86004 and 86999 and no other models recorded in the 86000 to 86999 serial number sequence.

This particular model would have been near the end of this first production run and similar to all other trumpets in this first batch, it only has "Mendez by F.E. Olds and Son Los Angeles Calif." engraved on the bell.  A few years later when the Mendez cornet was introduced looking virtually identical to the trumpet model, the words "Trumpet" and "Cornet" were added to the engraving on the respective models.    

We received this trumpet with two stuck slides and in need of basic cleaning, but it is in excellent original condition.   It still wears the majority of its original lacquer and the valve compression is very good.  Now that the two stuck slides have been freed, all slides function very well.   The only flaw other than some wear to to the lacquer is that the inside radius of the tuning slide crook has been slightly flattened.  Likely this occurred by an unsuccessful attempt to free the stuck tuning slide.   The resulting dent isn't significant, but must be mentioned.

In addition to the excellent original condition of this trumpet, the original case is in phenomenal condition.   I can't recall seeing a 70+ year old case that looks as good as this one.   

The original guarantee and owner's booklet are also included along with a Mendez 2 mouthpiece.  The mouthpiece shows some wear.

The guarantee certificate lists the new Olds location in Fullerton rather then the old Los Angeles address.  Olds moved to the new location in 1954, so perhaps Olds assigned 1,000 serial numbers to the first lot of Mendez trumpets and valve sets, but may not have completed final assembly of all 1,000 of these trumpets until they had orders for them.   After the original batch of 1,000 Mendez trumpets, the next Mendez trumpet that is listed in the Olds Register is SN 127351, which would likely have been made at least two years after the original batch of Mendez trumpets.

FEATURES:
Lacquered brass
Nickel plated valves
First and third valve slide spring loaded triggers

Gold plated finger buttons

Unique braces and finger ring

Third valve slide dump end
Bore: .460"
Matching serial numbers on all valve spring barrels
New springs, felts and corks
Brass Valve Guides