Make Your Own Custom Horn

Interested in owning a custom horn but hesitant about the cost? There is a resource out there worth checking into.

I have mentioned a couple times in this site that I made a natural horn as a Doctoral student with the help of Richard Seraphinoff, and that also I cut my first bell with his help and made several double horn leadpipes. In short I actually started college with the idea of becoming an instrument repairman and have enough horn repair tools and skill to do some pretty serious work on a horn. While time has been too limited to do so, it has been in the back of my mind as a someday project to build a horn.

That idea of building a horn is one a lot of players have and is why these days I periodically poke around buildahorn.com. A project of Atkinson Horns, as they explain there it is

Dedicated to assisting the builder, inventor, repairman and yes, the tinker who wants to make, improve and innovate our beloved instrument “The Horn”. In this website you will find all the items and assemblies you need to complete or improve your instrument. Many of you have creative design ideas but the difficulty is obtaining quality parts in a cost effective basis and on a timely manner. Inside this website you will find the most unique designs carefully crafted and presented. Because of this we are pleased to offer our 40 plus years in building and manufacturing at your service.

In the site you will find most of the parts you would need to make either a Geyer style or Kruspe style horn–parts that could be used to customize or repair a horn you already have, or you could go all the way and build your own custom horn. As really, when you get down to it, custom horns are nothing but high quality parts put together very well. A lot of what you pay for being the care and magic the builder infuses into the process, plus their specific skill in creating and selecting the parts and managing all the variables.

Atkinson also recently put this video out on YouTube that gives a good view of their operation. Having seen a couple custom horn builder shops, the Atkinson operation is on a larger scale. Where they take it to a level above the average custom builder in particular is that of making their own valves, a process featured in the photos at the middle of the video.

To build horns requires a lot of care and a lot of skill, especially so to produce one that looks perfect and plays great. I may never build that custom horn but still it is a thought. I would close with a final note of respect for all the small custom horn makers out there, we at Horn Matters certainly salute all of you for your hard work toward the production of some of the best horns out there.