Help in French Horn Purchase
Raymond L Day
My daughter plays French Horn in High School and in considering becoming
a music major in college. She currently owns a King 618 single french horn
I purchased some years ago for her. This horn has always played well ( she
says) and we think it has a nice tone. Now, for college she need to
practice some pieces for the college audition. We know she needs a double
for this and I am considering getting a second horn so she can work on these
pieces at home while leaving the King single at school so she can play in
the band without hauling her horn back and forth. Her band teacher
recommended a Conn 8d and while this should be a great horn, I cannot part
with that kind of money with college coming up. She wants to use the horn
as her principle instrument to enter college, but she has no intrest in
being 1st chair in the orchestra or anything along that line as she paluyys
several instruments. What we need is a good playing, good sounding double
horn that will fill her needs thru college at a reasonable price ( below
$1000 ). We have seen some new cheap double horns on Ebay and elsewhere
(below 500) that are band instrument/ intermediate quality. We have the
following questions and are hoping that the group can help us learn about
this subject. Thanks for your time.
1. What are some good quality (for the purpose we describer above) in this
price range
2. We saw a Steuben (gernam made) Model 496 (they say lists at 999) for 220.
This seems WAY too cheap to be a good horn. What do you think?
3. What is a compensating horn as opposed to a non-compensating horn?
Ex-austinite
"Raymond L Day" <raymon...@iname.com> wrote in message
news:SOCn9.87839$kk7.17...@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
>
> 1. What are some good quality (for the purpose we describer above) in this
> price range
> 2. We saw a Steuben (gernam made) Model 496 (they say lists at 999) for
220.
> This seems WAY too cheap to be a good horn. What do you think?
> 3. What is a compensating horn as opposed to a non-compensating horn?
>
>
It would help if your mail server wouldn't reject replies.
1. There aren't really any. Maybe some used/worn Conn 6Ds or Holton Farkas
17x/18x series instruments can be found around $1K.
2. Made in China. Sold under the "German Engineering" moniker. Avoid.
3. Compensating: F and B-flat share same tubing rather than have unique
paths. Generally speaking, avoid.
If you want an instrument your daughter can play for the rest of her life,
spend a few hundred extra and avoid the hassles of having to repair a used
horn of unknown provenance. A better-quality horn will have a higher resale
value if she decides she doesn't want to play, too. Crappy instruments will
NOT help her when it comes time to audition, either. And having her play on
a single at home and a double at school (or vice versa) is not smart.
Different fingerings, the high F horn plays differently than the high
B-flat, etc.. If you buy a double it should end up being the ONLY horn she
plays.
You might want to look at http://www.io.com/~rboerger/newhorn.html as well.
Dr. Mike MItchell
>
> Do not purchase the Stueben Chinese Nightmare horn!
>
> Here are the Ebay listings of some horns that will do:
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=911302544 not bad at
all. Functional.
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=911007973 looks odd but
> the seller has a misplaced slide. Not a bad horn.
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=911325150 good horn.
> Great seller.
>
> Also:
>
> A Reynolds Nickel-Silver double horn at
> http://www.dallas-music.com/band.html is a great horn at $1000.
>
> A King 2269 on this page
>
http://www.dillonmusic.com/Used_Instruments/usedinstruments.asp?instrument=U
> sed%20French%20Horns at $1195 is a fine horn.
>
> A Reynolds Contempora is a good horn at
> http://www.1800usaband.com/htmls/itementryview.asp?itementryid=1964 for
> $1222 with trade.
>
> Dr. Mike Mitchell
"Raymond L Day" <raymon...@iname.com> wrote in message
news:SOCn9.87839$kk7.17...@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
Chris
I played all through college and in grad school with a borrowed Conn 8D
from the school. Basically checked it out for 6 years (at the end of
every year they took it back for a few weeks). This happend at both a
Community College and a University of California. Why don't you ask the
conductor.
There might also be grant money availble for a lease from the school if
they don't have a loaner program.
Chris
Dee & Jim Buchholz
it for 30 years, prorated out it is less than the cost of a pizza per month.
Also I could turn around and sell it for upwards to $2000 if I wished to.
Colleges and Universities have school horns but when I was in college the
maintenance on the school horns was not the best. Considering the cost of
attending college now, paying $2600 for a life-long use of a horn is a small
investment. I heard that college tuition for under-grads at Boston
University runs $40,000 per year.
jim buchholz
"Raymond L Day" <raymon...@iname.com> wrote in message
news:SOCn9.87839$kk7.17...@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
> My daughter plays French Horn in High School and in considering
becoming
> a music major in college. She currently owns a King 618 single french
horn
> I purchased some years ago for her. This horn has always played well
Leonard & Peggy Brown
"Raymond L Day" <raymon...@iname.com> wrote in message
news:SOCn9.87839$kk7.17...@twister.nyroc.rr.com...
Leonard & Peggy Brown
>
> 1. What are some good quality (for the purpose we describer above) in this
> price range
Conn 6D, Kings, Holton are all good quality horn, I am not a fan of the 8D
because of its sound and I really like some Kings I have played in the last
few years. I can vouch for the quality of the above but you really need to
try lots of horns to find one you like. I was going to list Yamahas but a
lot of them suffer from bad joints.
> 2. We saw a Steuben (gernam made) Model 496 (they say lists at 999) for
220.
THIS IS A FRAUD! IT IS NOT GERMAN. You were smart to ask.
> 3. What is a compensating horn as opposed to a non-compensating horn?
The Comp horn uses more of the same tubing for the different keys than a
double horn does. In theory there shouldn't be much difference but in fact
the only people that seem to make compensating horns are the high end makers
like Alexander and Kruspe and low end makers from Italy and China. Most of
the compensators you will see are bad not because they are compensating
horns but because they from low end makers and are just plain bad.
>
>
Leonard & Peggy Brown
>
> 1. What are some good quality (for the purpose we describer above) in this
> price range
Conn 6D, Kings, Holton are all good quality horn, I am not a fan of the 8D
because of its sound and I really like some Kings I have played in the last
few years. I can vouch for the quality of the above but you really need to
try lots of horns to find one you like. I was going to list Yamahas but a
lot of them suffer from bad joints.
> 2. We saw a Steuben (gernam made) Model 496 (they say lists at 999) for
220.
THIS IS A FRAUD! IT IS NOT GERMAN. You were smart to ask.
> 3. What is a compensating horn as opposed to a non-compensating horn?
The Comp horn uses more of the same tubing for the different keys than a
PSte...@t-online.de
I am since 35 years hornplayer in the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt. I play my own Alexander-modell No: 403S.
I like to say something about comensation-modells.
It is a , mostly a ideology fundamentalist calumny, if anyone said, the compensation horns are badly and only from low end makers.
For example the very famous Wendler-modell from Kruspe was played by a legion of the finest european hornplayer 50 years ago. The most Scandinavian hornplayer play the Alexander 102 (even to day Ib Lansky-Otto). The most dutch Player (p.e.. Adrian van Woudenberg) play Knopf-compensating-horns. All modern french frenchhorns (Selmer, Courtois ans..) are compensating horns. The compensating Idea is absolute genial. (You know that all Euphoniums work with the compensating system) The horn is less heavy (ideal for women). If you play not all, but mostly on the b-flat-side, then it is the most recommendable horn, then the b-flat-side is generally better than on the normal double horns!
The normal double horn ( I say "either or…" horns) are heavier and - not ever, but mostly - have a better f-horn-side, because the air goes only one time through the valves). A good ringing horn sound do not depend from the system, but from the good measures of the bell.( not!!! to big)
greetings
Peter Steidle
PSte...@t-online.de
Ken Moore
t-online.de <PSte...@t-online.de> writes
> I like to say something about comensation-modells.
>
up playing the horn, I became very interested in the five valve single
horn in Bb, tough I never played one. Alexander make this in two
layouts, one with two thumb valves and the other with one thumb and a
fourth finger valve. The two valves provide 3/4 tone (for hand
stopping) and perfect fourth lower.
Do you know of any professional players who use a horn of this design?
It gives accurate lengths for every note in the range except low F# bass
clef (written for horn in F) with a maximum of five valves traversed
(cf. eight on a compensator, five on a full double). I presume it is
even lighter than a compensator.
--
Ken Moore
K.C....@reading.ac.uk
pg composition student, University of Reading
Leonard & Peggy Brown
"00069674136706995651108#00...@t-online.de" <PSte...@t-online.de> wrote in
message news:3DBBC30E...@t-online.de...
> 27.10.2002
> I am since 35 years hornplayer in the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt.
> I play my own Alexander-modell No: 403S.
>
> I like to say something about comensation-modells.
> It is a , mostly a ideology fundamentalist calumny, if anyone said, the
> compensation horns are badly and only from low end makers.
Hello,
I did write the compesating horns are made mostly by high end makers and
low end makers. The problem over here is that almost none of the well made
ones are sold. For every Alexander compensating horn that shows up on Ebay
there will be 50 junkers. Most of ours use to come from Italy now they are
showing up from China. As I posted, it is not the design that is bad it is
the bad builders.
LB