From the earliest years, he was offering a variety of bore sizes (.485' and dual bores from. Implementing new ideas patented in 1912 (some of these are incorporated in trombones today), Olds started producing quality trombones on a small scale. It was probably about this time that he first offered his new trombones for sale. This early work was done in a small workshop behind his house, which was just south of downtown Los Angeles. In 1901, he was a machinist with the Locomobile Company of the Pacific, branching out from bicycles to automobiles.Īll along experimenting with trombone design, he was repairing band instruments full-time by 1910. 1886 also marked the arrival in Los Angeles of F.E.'s future bride, Helen Daisy Birdsall. Hazard, establishing the Los Angeles Tool Works by 1887. By 1886, he had established the first electroplating shop in Southern California, doing silver plating with H. An amateur trombone player and entrepreneur, he first set up a shop to build bicycles, which was the only one in Los Angeles at the time.

In 1885, he moved to Los Angeles, California. Conn and learned the brass instrument making business. went to Elkhart, Indiana to work for C.G. While a child his family moved to Toledo, Ohio. He was named for the Civil War hero Frank Ellsworth of the Ellsworth Zouaves. Olds and Sons, based in Mountainside, New Jersey.įrank Ellsworth (F.E.) Olds was born in Medina, New York in 1861. Reynolds in 1964) have since been bought and revived in 1983 by a new company under the name F.E. The Olds and Reynolds names (Olds merged with F.A. That plus competition from other companies and cutbacks in school music budgets led to the firm going out of business in 1979. Construction quality declined as production quotas were emphasized.

The company made brass instruments, especially trombones, cornets, and trumpets.īy the late 1960s or early 1970s, although still producing some professional level instruments, the company had become better known for mass-produced student instruments. E.) Olds in Los Angeles, California in the early 1900s. Olds was a manufacturer of musical instruments founded by Frank Ellsworth (F. 1927, with the trademark 'Golden Bear' and date of the 1912 patent.į.

Olds ambassador serial numbers