F.E. Olds basses - any good?

[Bardolph]

I'm gonna be getting my first upright sometime soon. I would be able to get these at a discount. Anybody have any experience with these? I'm looking for something for both jazz and classical, more jazz though.

http://feolds.com/descriptions/descripBasses.htm#898

[BRIDGE]

Why would anyone trying to sell instruments have such a rudimentary website? Most of those basses don't even have a single picture! A lot of websites I've stumbled upon selling basses or other instruments make this mistake, of hardly providing any pictures or information. Ken Smith's website should be the example for everyone wishing to advertise instruments on a website. He has a million pictures of every bass, and extremely detailed descriptions of everything.

It's not that hard to make a web page and put pictures on it.

[drurb]

I sure agree about the value of pictures. Then again, they can only go so far, given that the most important characteristics cannot be conveyed by them (i.e., sound, feel, etc.).

[Bass Barrister]

F.E. Olds was a well-known maker of brass instruments. It operated in LA from 1908 up through the mid-1950s and then moved to Fullerton, CA. Thousands of grade and high school kids played Olds Ambassador trumpets, trombones, baritones, and tubas, and many of these old horns are still played today. The company went out of business in 1979. At some point in its history, Olds acquired the Reynolds firm, another well known brass maker. The brass "meister" at the time was Zig Kanstul, the current owner of Kanstul Musical Instrument Company, a maker of quality brass horns and one of the few US musical instrument companies not part of the Conn-Selmer cyborg.

This "new Olds" has no relation to the former company. Their brass instruments are Chinese imports, mostly of fair quality. My strings suspicion is that the basses are also Chinese. I've never seen or played one, but I would proceed with caution in buying one of these.