Not to beat the tired horse here, but I'd like to underscore some things
that have already been said on this subject and maybe add something.
Most horn designs, whether 8-D, Engelbert Schmidt, Alexander, Holton,
Geyer, Paxman, etc. are sound, and the player's choice as to which horn
to pursue is a personal one based on the kind of sound they want to make
and the way they want to (or are accustomed to) feel while playing the
instrument. The variability between one specific example of a design
and another comes down to the individual execution of that design.
Every solder joint that is sloppy, every burr on a piece of cut tubing,
every ferule under which the tubing does not align properly, every sharp
edge on a valve port or casing, every slide that is pulled resulting in
an expansion and subsequent restriction of the internal diameter, result
in acoustic distortions. The more attention that is paid to all of
these details the better a horn will play and the more consistency there
will be from one example to another.
It should be noted that the narrower the tubing at the point where the
anomaly is occurring, the greater the effect that that anomaly will have
on the playability/intonation. Hence the affect that lead-pipes can
have. Steve Mumford makes a great point about how critical it can be to
have the correct mouthpiece shank taper for the instrument. The valve
section is a major problem because of all of the tubing-connection
points. The major reason why compensating horns tend in general to play
so poorly on the long side is because the air passes through the valve
column twice. Notice that Engelbert Schmidt uses one piece of tubing
between each valve instead of a ferule joining two pieces.
I recently got a deal on an old Alex 107S compensating descant that
allowed me to invest in having Ted Woehr in Pittsburgh rip it apart and
reassemble it with attention to detail. This horn played very poorly on
the b-flat side when I got it and had many pitch problems. After the
rebuild, the b-flat side played as freely and in-tune as my single
b-flat! Additionally he rebuilt all of the valve slides so that all of
the slide legs fit to the bottom of the slide tube when the slides are
in tune. This is not the first horn whose slides I've had rebuilt in
this manner, and in each case the overall playability and intonation of
the instrument was improved tremendously, and there has been no downside
intonation-wise to having the slides a fixed length. Changing the
position of the main slide has been all that was needed when dealing
with adjustments necessitated by the temperature of the venue.
Having said all of this, there is a lot of significance to having proper
mathematics to the lead-pipe and bell branch/flare. On many of the
venerable designs this was achieved through trial and error or maybe by
chance. Modern work with computers has enabled builders to improve the
acoustical design. Anyone who has played Alexanders over the years know
how many horns had "problem" notes in the high register (usually either
the A or the b-flat.) Dillon Music here in New Jersey has been stocking
Alexes for the last 10-years and I have been amazed at the consistency
of the instruments in terms of the relative free-blowing quality and
high-range accuracy vs. the instruments from the 60's and 70's. I have
gotten to know the younger Alexander, Philipp, who received "Meister"
training and took over the day to day operation of the firm more
recently (early 90's?). He explained to me that they redesigned the
lead-pipe and bell of the 103 (the bell is now a medium large) and
exerted strict quality control over the work being done by their
valve-column supplier and that this was what resulted in the improvement
in playability and consistency of their instruments.
Lastly, I've owned two instruments that came with after-market
lead-pipes and bells. In each case the replacement made the horn play
fatter and darker, but in each case the agility, flexibility and
intonation of the instrument was better with the original design. A
poorly made lead-pipe can screw up an instrument, but the lead-pipe is
only one in a long chain of workmanship issues that can make a horn play
badly. If one is pursuing changes because one wants a different sound,
it's probably best to investigate a different make/model that gives one
the sound one seeks. The old maxim that one gets what one pays for is
really applicable here. The more you can afford custom work the better
the instrument will play. That said, each time you double your money,
you don't double the improvement. The step between say an $8K Paxman
and a $12K Schmidt is not going to yield the same step up as going from
a $3K mass-produced horn to an $8K Paxman.
Respectfully submitted,
Doug Lundeen
Assoc. Prof. of Horn
Rutgers University
www.brassrootstrio.com
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