- - Please visit: Legacy Horn Experience - -
The last big horn building project I had completed was in the 1990s when I was playing in Nashville, which is when I also built my first workbench and obtained the tools I’m relying on today. The big project then was recreating a Gumpert model horn from the 19th century, using modern parts.
This was a horn I had put together under the guidance of historical horn maker Rick Seraphinoff, the last real work being done in Potsdam where I cut the bell. The body was a King/Cleveland single F, to which I added E and F crooks built with his tapers, and an additional section of tapered tubing from the crook socket to the main slide (a portion of a tube that Rick would have used as a first branch on a natural horn), among other tweaks then. Ultimately, I was not completely happy, as the valve set was not great and there were some odd intonation issues.
For the sabbatical I purchased a King single Bb and used that valve set to upgrade the instrument and, with completely disassembling the instrument, I worked over all the joints, rebuilt all the slides, etc. If you look closely at the back of the horn you can see where I had to add a 1” straight section of tubing. This was because the geometry of the horn changed as I was fixing the joints and creating the best build I could.
Ultimately the body of the horn is about 80% King parts (from two different horns), with a flare from an older Holton descant and one Mirafone part thrown in for looks. With the crooks being made on Seraphinoff tapers the end result is the horn plays quite well! I think the basic Gumpert design is quite good. Extra care in assembly helped improve many things, as did finding and removing a costume jewelry ring (!) from the area of the joint between the bell tail and first branch (more here). Looking at photos of period horns and modifying the bracing pattern was also more helpful that you might guess.
One thing to mention is my craftsmanship I believe has improved, although, and this is important to note, virtually every step took at least twice as long to do as I thought it would. Maybe I’ll get faster, but the more important thing was that I took the time to be sure things were done right. This was a great project to start with for the sabbatical horn building, as it really refreshed my memory and set me up well for what is to come.
The build is documented in a series of posts on Instagram (@ericsonhorn), and at the end of this article several more photos of the horn in progress are to be found.
The Gumpert horn is not quite done, as I will also be making a new Bb crook for it. A very innovative thing about the Gumpert design was that it could be set up to play in F or in Bb (or any other key, really), and I now have matching slide sets for F and Bb. Using a crook from my natural horn to test it, the horn plays quite well in Bb — building the new crook of the same type (but slightly longer) is a project for future weeks.
I was able to borrow a couple of similar horns from a local collection. One is a Pizka Vienna horn. There is a very interesting comparison to be made between the two, and to be honest, in terms of actual playability, the Gumpert horn compares very favorably to the Pizka. The other borrowed horn is not playable, an unmarked crooked rotary valve horn from the 19th century, but taking the time to examine it closely has been of benefit to me at this point in the project.
As I plan to spend more time building than writing, a quick description of future projects is in order. I have two other main projects lined up. One is to rebuild a Mirafone single F with what looks to be a wonderful bell (but trashed valves) to sit in F with what was the Eb main slide, patterned after a 19th century Schmidt design, replacing the valves with Yamaha valves (I’ll also be able to put it in G with the original F main slide). The final project is a “conversion horn” idea using a Yamaha single F to make a crooked single F. I have the parts to do both. Will require bending tubing, etc., won’t be easy projects, but I have the time. Oh, and at the very end, if I have time and motivation, I’ll work the remaining modern parts into a natural horn, hopefully something a level above the typical conversion.
But today was my day to force myself not to work on horns, I have too much stuff to catch up on. Maybe it is the pandemic, but this has been such a great change, it just feels great to do physical work in the shop. On to the next projects soon.
Continue reading Sabbatical series
