The Great Bell Test

In studio class this week, at the end, I took some time to test three bells on my descant horn, one the original that is a light brass bell and the others being the nickel silver bell off my Paxman 25A and also a heavy brass bell that has its origins on a King single F.

The bells are quite different than each other so I thought people could hear a difference easily. The heavy brass bell is probably twice as heavy as the original bell and somewhat harder, and the nickel silver bell is bigger by a good bit and effectively gives the horn a bigger bell.

In terms of me I like them all, it just depends on what I am playing in terms of music. So it was a fair comparison on my end. For the test I played a section of the Telemann Concerto, mvt. 1, and part of the third movement of the Rheinberger Sonata. The studio got to hold each bell briefly to see and feel the differences before they heard them. I also had the studio turn around; they could not see which bell was on the horn during the test.

I gave students a form to fill out. One thing they had to try to guess was which bell was which. I also had them say which one was the best, with space to offer comments.

The comments were interesting and I will mull those over further. The bottom line was

1. Differences were easy to hear
2. The guess as to which bell was which was really a guess. Votes were pretty evenly divided between each bell and probably destroyed some preconceived notions
3. In the end the original bell had a slight overall edge in voting but people liked all three bells

My general impressions are that all articulate OK but somewhat differently, I like the stability of the heavy bell and the feel of the nickel silver bell (at least in part because it makes the descant feel more like a the instrument it came off of), and I need to do more tests to decide which one actually feels the best on average when I play it, which one has the highest percentage.

I should note if you are thinking about test of your own that not all Paxman bells are compatible. The bell on my triple has enough different a ring that it won’t work on the descant, and the heavy bell does not fit that well (it has a Paxman ring that came to me in some parts from a retiring horn player). In all cases Paxman rings are different than the more standard Alexander ring, Yamaha uses a smaller ring, etc.

Not all bells will interchange but it really is well worth your time to do your own bell test, it can be a great way to improve your horn.