Description

1969 Olds Ambassador SN# 696484 (Circa 1968)  From the Summer of Love.  This horn is in raw brass.  Slides and Valves work like they should. A very open, responsive horn with great intonation, excellent tone, and fantastic valves. At least one designer and builder of custom trumpets begins every horn with an Ambassador valve section. He claims to have disassembled and worked on virtually every brand of horn on the market, and finds the Ambassador valves to be the most reliable, trouble-free, smooth-playing valve section ever made. According to an email message posted from Zig Kanstul, the models of trumpets made by Olds in the late 1940’s, 1950s and 1960’s all were made with the same bell mandrel, to the same specifications — from the Ambassador all the way to the Mendez. (although some models used different materials). The only exceptions were the Opera (which had a larger bore) and the Custom. According to another former Olds designer, Olds was a ‘one tolerance shop’ in other words all models of horns were made to the same tolerance. In particular, it is said that this was true from the Ambassador trumpet all the way through the Mendez. The Ambassador and Mendez were designed at roughly the same time, and were intended to be essentially the same horn (even using the same brass, with the same thickness of metal), made to the same tolerances. Zigg Kanstul seemed to remember that the Ambassador may have had a different lead pipe. But for those who are not put off by the fact that the Ambassador was a student model, there are some truly great horns available at bargain prices!  YouTube soon