Good morning. Long time T-chat stalker. First post. I own a wonderful Holton Strat that I inherited from my uncle who passed away in the early '70's. I was about 20 at the time. Prior to that, I had been a student of his for a number of years. According to family legends, he played this horn during his time with Gene Krupa somewhere about the late 40's and continued playing it pro until his ultimate death. There was a ton of confusion around his death, so I didn't ask any questions and graciously accepted it thinking little of it as I suspected this couldn't be "his horn" (at 20, I knew everything about everything and "knew" Holton only made low end horns) so it went to the closet for a couple months until one day I needed it while the only horn I'd ever played (a student Holton Collegiate) wasn't available. I was a college freshman and needed it that day for Concert Orchestra. Well......it sure felt nice out of the case, though I was more concerned with prepping the slide. Once seated, the conductor took charge and after a few minutes of discussion we'd began to play and......HOLY SHI*!!!! Over the next few days, I would get schooled by this horn in everything I DIDN'T know about trombones, much less Holton! This thing was WICKED fast. Nimble as can be in the higher register, yet as full as could be in the lowest I could play. As full sounding as nearly any larger bore throughout its range and (for better or worse), sung out over the rest of the section without needing a lot of air! I would need some time to learn how to tame that. Anyway, back to today. I've long wanted to restore the horn for display and see how much I could learn about my uncle, known for his amazing talent but probably better known for his very colorful, sometimes (usual) wild past. Today, I'm faced with a conundrum. I always knew there was a serial number on the slide (s/n 20122xx) indicating a 1949 manufacturing date which matches family legend, but today for the first time, I've found a completely different number on the bell above the lock collar (s/n 3323xx) suggesting a 1959 manufacturing date. The bell digits are stamped with a completely different type size and process. Not near as deep or distinct as the stamping on the slide. So I have questions. Both the slide and bell look typically Strat and suffer from similar signs of wear. The bell has the Strat engraving....... so is this just that forever what reason, one or the other half of the horn got replaced? Is there another s/n stamped anywhere on these horns? Does anyone have individual records from those days at Holton or around Gene Krupa? Any input would be greatly appreciated. I will soon post some additional info on my profile page for anyone interested..... along with contact info......just as soon as I figure out how to do that. It's been giving me problems. Thanks everyone. Jim

Buddy Morrow was Holton”s big name player for several decades, they made the BM model, 65,67,69, Strat all pro horns many varied versions of each.

Others on the forum will know far more about the pro Holton’s than I do

If you haven’t go check out Buddy’s playing prior to him switching to Conn then King after the demise of Holton circa early 70’s recordings such as the Golden trombone of BM and hear what you can do on those horns

The Stratodyne was the Model 67. Morrow played a 65 (smaller bore, more like a King 2B). I have a Stratodyne from 1964 and it's great for Big Band, but its first owner was a great Dixieland player.

I need to know the slide bore of the Tr 301 or 69

Thanks a lot

This page from the 1960 Holton catalog indicates that the 65 and 67 had the same bore and bell size. The primary difference noted in the descriptions is the outside slide tubes. The 69 has a larger bell and "duo-bore" slides. For some reason the Holton catalogs never seem to list bore sizes for duo-bore horns.
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