Rittenhouse Bel Air ~1960
The Bel Air 391 was a direct competitor Rittenhouse of the NuTone Chord Tone.
The Bel Air plays two chords for the front door and two notes for a second door. The chords are achieved with a pair of horizontally stacked solenoids and four tone bars. The solenoids are a stacked arrangement of the Rittenhouse Lifetime Floating Striker solenoids.
The stacked tone bar arrangement is similar to the NuTone L-36 Elite Clock Chime. The Bel Air was surface mounted and at 3 1/16 inches is a bit deeper than chimes that do not play a chord. Like many of its contemporary chimes, the Bel air has Stereo-like styling with acoustically transparent grille cloth.
The 1960 Rittenhouse Catalog describes the Bel Air:
391 * BEL AIR * This beautiful new chord chime provides true pleasure to both eye and ear. Melodious twin chords for the front door, two single notes for the rear. Light beige finish with modern grille and decorative “Lifetime Guaranteed Striker Mechanism.“
| Manufacturer | Rittenhouse Company Inc. |
| Location of Manufacture | Honeyoye Falls, New York, USA |
| Date of Manufacture | ~1960 |
| Cover | Styrene Plastic with fabric grill and foil emblem |
| Mechanism | Stamped steel |
| Tone bars | Painted Steel |
| Height | 10 inches |
| Width | 7 3/8 inches |
| Depth | 3 1/6 inches |
| Notes | ElectraChime Collection. Unused original condition in box. |
Personally, the NuTone ChordTone is better, but this is also nice. I don’t hear that c# as much, which is why I’m going to go with the chord tone as the nicer sounding one. This one sounds like the L31 PaceSetter but tinnier. I do like the design though.