John Heald Bb Cornet
Spingfield, Massachusetts
c.1895

Here is a Bb cornet by John Heald and one that I had been looking for for quite a while. Heald worked with Isaac Fiske then started his own business in Springfield. Some say that he made one of the best cornets ever. This one appeared to be good at first glance but looking at it thoroughly revealed lots of issues. One old patch on the bell curve was well done but in many other places there were blobs of solder and the outer tubing on the second valve slide was poorly replaced. Then when I tried to play this I found a crack in the first valve slide.

Here it is as I bought it.

This tubing had more of a chrome finish, was too large a diameter, and there were blobs of solder all over.

Here is the slide back together with tubing from an old parts cornet.

Another surprise was that the top valve caps were not original. When I took them off they seemed a little sloppy then I saw that the numbers stamped on them did not match the cornet. Whoever replaced the corks last also bent the top edges in to hold the cork rather than size them right. Here it is all back together. I don't think the Bb shank is original since the color is not the same but I will keep it for now.

The 1884 patent is for his unique water key that doesn't require reaching down to use it. The 1889 patent is for his tubing design. The mouthpiece is a bit rough but still plays fine and this is a great sounding cornet.