LATIN PERCUSSION "PAKISTAN BELLTREES" RESTORED

These unusual belltrees were made in Pakistan but sold by the Latin Percussion company many, many years ago.  They have long since disappeared from the LP product line and are extremely rare.  I found them both for sale on eBay and of course, absolutely HAD to have them.

I had seen these trees on display at a local music store back in the early 1980's, before I knew what they were.  Years later after I had developed a love for percussion instruments, these trees were long gone and forgotten.  LP stopped carrying them, music stores never heard of them and nowhere in any catalog or on any website could they be found.

But I remembered them, even if it did seem like a distant dream.  As my collection of bells and percussion instruments grew, I only wished I could somehow locate them and add them to my stash.  But did they ever really exist and did anyone actually have a pair?

The answer is yes, and now they have been sold to me.  Here they are, newly restored:

As you can see, both trees were a little old and tired.  They needed some love and attention, and quite a bit of polish on the bells and the bases.  I also straightened them up by tightening the center rods and readjusting the inner spacers between the bells.  Now they look much better. 

As for the sound of them, they sound pretty much how you would expect heavy brass bells to ring, except they don't produce perfect low-to-high notes like you would think.  The notes are surprisingly random, with some smaller bells producing lower notes than the larger ones.  This is typical with bell trees, however, which are made with inconsistently cast brass bells, not perfectly tuned bronze handbells.  I have several of these instruments and this is always the case.