Instrument Specifications

ID	11501
Instrument	Mellophone
Maker	Holton
Model
Serial#	27035
Date Made	1914
Prod. Range
Pitch	Bb
Description	Made in Chicago with a union label. In low pitch Bb. Bore size 0-
Commentary	Photos from Ebay sale
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ID	7264
Instrument	Mellophone
Maker	Holton
Model	Collegiate
Serial#	105839
Date Made	1930
Prod. Range
Pitch	F/Eb/D/C
Description	Hatbox
Commentary
Comment	To use picture in a post, paste this line:	[img]http://www.horn-u-copia.net/instruments/Holton/Holton-mello-105839.jpg[/img]

ID	6626
Instrument	Mellophone
Maker	Holton
Model	MH101
Serial#	6004XX
Date Made	after 1980
Prod. Range
Pitch	F
Description	Mellophonium
Commentary
Comment	To use picture in a post, paste this line:	[img]http://www.horn-u-copia.net/instruments/Holton/Holton-mello-MH101.jpg[/img]

ID	6330
Instrument	Mellophone
Maker	Holton
Model
Serial#
Date Made
Prod. Range
Pitch
Description	gsmonks: If you examine the bells of certain mellophone instruments, you will see a large joint near the bell where the bell is held on by means of a threaded cuff. Turning the cuff unscrews the bell for removal, and in certain cases the bell was stored, as in this instance, in a case refered to as a "hatbox", as the fashion of the day was for women to store their hats in similar fashion for travel. While hardly an innovation ("French" horns and other instruments with removeable bells had been around since the 19th century) it is noteworthy that such care went into the manufacture of what today is thought of as a cheap, student-model substitute for the "French" horn. It must be remembered that until circa 1940, mellophone and related instruments were a staple of the professional musician. VegasGeorge: I am the owner of a Hat Box Mellophone. It is engraved on the bell "Collegiate made by Frank Holton &Co Elkhorn Wis." The serial number is stamped on the 2nd (middle) valve casing, "109916." That indicates the horn was produced in 1931. All parts of the instrument appear to be original, and it is entirely intact. I had a couple of minor dents removed. It still has a small ding in a section of hard to reach tubing where the mouthpiece was apparently dropped on it. I play the instrument every now and then. It actually plays quite well. I am not a collector, but I intend to keep it just for the fun of playing it. I find the transposing slide system most fascinating. The main tuning slide is actually two slides, a slide in a slide if you will. The short length renders F and the two slides together produce Eb. Then there are the slide extenders you can see in the photograph. They lower the pitch by 1/2 step (as I recall), so you have the possibility of an E or a D horn depending on the main slide configuration.
Commentary
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ID	557
Instrument	Mellophone
Maker	Holton
Model	M601
Serial#
Date Made
Prod. Range
Pitch	F
Description	HornDawg: Until recently, the only mpc I could use was a Bach 5FL flugel and it was quite nice with that but much brighter and thinner than I wanted. Recently got my hands on a Bach 3 Mellophone mpc and the difference is like night and day (except it is a much more drastic change from the horn mpc to this and back). I am a Marcinkiewicz artist and am thinking of asking Joe to make me a piece for this horn. With an actual Mellophone mpc, the out of tune notes fall in strange places. The E and Eb seem pretty good but the F in the staff is WAY flat. The octave from middle C (written) to 3rd space C seems stretched. Some of this will, no doubt, be me getting adjusted to the larger I.D. of the mello mpc. Sound gets better as you go up with a very "Poppy" G above the staff and a gorgeous Ab! Middle C down to the low F# are fat and punchy. It is the fifth between middle C and G in the staff that are kinda funky, but so far nothing you can not fix as you go. Behind the bell, it sounds kinda honky, but practice room recordings tell me that is not whats coming out of the bell. I do not think there is anything wrong with this horn that some practice room time would not fix. Cheesy Okay. I did get Marcinkiewicz to make me a piece for this horn. Partially because it was so hard to find something to fit it. I finally sent him the Bach 3 I had been playing and asked him to match the shank to that. We talked about my difficulty in switching back and forth from my horn piece (about 17.5mm internal diameter) to the Bach (what is it, about 19.75mm?) and back. Apparently, he has been working with some of the band directors in his area on mello mpcs for marching band anyway, so he had "mellos on the brain" right then. What he sent me has the same ID as the horn mpc he made at the same time (seems bigger than my old one to me...) and looks to be modelled on the 6V mello mpc that, apparently, comes with many marching horns? The Kelley mpc is based on this and Joes is of a similar depth (pretty darn shallow compared to the Bachs). How does it sound? Well, it projects like crazy! At first I thought it was too bright, but I am realizing that what sounds dark enough to me is actually WAY to dark to play on a gig (for both horn and mello). At a soft volume, I can get that sort of "fluffy" jazz flugel kind of thing going on and then as you put more air into it, instead of getting brighter and harder the sound gets fatter and denser, more "french horn-like" for want of a better term. In fact, the middle and upper registers just sound huge! The scale is still out (but I kinda expected that) and the design of this mpc makes it a bit harder to pull to E and F at the bottom of the staff (written) up to where I want them. I am having trouble getting the Ab, A Bb, B and C above the staff to center. I know it is a combination of me with this mpc because I can pop them out on the Bach, but they will not lock with the Marcinkiewicz. I am going to write him about that. To be honest, when I first saw the cup shape and depth, I was disappointed. It just looked too small and shallow. Shows that you should use your ears first and eyes second, I guess. Wink Edit: OK. I guess my chops were just WAY off yesterday. After writing the above post, I picked up the Holton and started to just play - no long warmup, just music - and the notes is question, though a little ragged because of I was cold, speak and center just fine. I do think they do not center WHERE I think they should which could cause the problem. Anyway, I am going to record the mello today and see what is going on in front of the bell...
Commentary
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ID	403
Instrument	Mellophone
Maker	Holton
Model	592681
Serial#
Date Made
Prod. Range
Pitch
Description	Mellophonium
Commentary
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ID	217
Instrument	Mellophone
Maker	Holton
Model
Serial#
Date Made
Prod. Range
Pitch
Description
Commentary
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ID	216
Instrument	Mellophone
Maker	Holton
Model
Serial#	9029
Date Made	1909
Prod. Range
Pitch
Description	made in Chicago
Commentary
Comment	To use picture in a post, paste this line:	[img]http://www.horn-u-copia.net/instruments/Holton/Holton-Silver-Mello.jpg[/img]