Posted by Lew on October 07, 2002 at 16:30:14:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Symphony brand Eb helicon posted by Kenneth Sloan on October 06, 2002 at 20:33:06:
The only place I have seen the name Symphony spelled this way is as a brand name used by Rudolph Wurlitzer. I don't knwo if Wurlitzer actually manufactured any of their own brass instruments or farmed them all out, but I believe that they both had American manufacturers make some of them and imported some. I bet that this was sold by Wurlitzer, but that doesn't really help in determining much about its heritage.
It has what seems to me to be an unusual valve tubing wrap, looking somewhat like something I have only seen on Holton helicons, like in this photo. The most unusual thing is the tuning in the leadpipe that goes into the 3rd valve. This Holton has tuning in the leadpipe, but I think that the leadpipe goes into the first valve. Since Wurlitzer was in Chicago, and so was Holton for some time, it makes sense that Wurlitzer may have used them.