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First let me say this horn came out really well!
For this project I combined most of the tubing from a vintage (probably 1960s) Mirafone single horn with the valve section (and more) from a Yamaha. As part of this process I redesigned the horn itself, so that the pattern now matches that used by Schmidt (among others) in the 19th century. When crooked in F it uses what Mirafone meant to be the Eb slide, and the F slide now puts the horn in G. Photos of the horn are spread out in this article, with the final photo being the only “before” photo I saved from the original eBay listing. Notice that is was missing a few critical parts, and had probably been hanging on a wall.
This conversion was a bit more complicated to do than I anticipated. One element to having to rebend three key parts (which I did with cerrobend), but another element was I was thinking that the original F slides might work in G with them pushed in, but reality was I needed to make a set of short slides (and extend the G main slide). Fortunately, the original Mirafone first and third slides were bent smaller and could be cut down just enough to work in G, and I was able to put together a short second valve from Holton and King parts. The result is that in both keys the horn plays well, and I was able to maintain a pretty consistent aesthetic to the design in spite of using parts from multiple horns.
It has quite a retro look, like it could easily be over 100 years old, and I really like the tone and feel of the horn a great deal. The hand-hammered bell and nickel sliver garland are great features toward the ultimate tone color, which I can’t wait to try out for listeners in a larger/better space.
WHY G?
This very obvious question has actually a very simple answer. It may only be a legend, but it has been theorized or speculated that Max Hess, the original performer of the Corno Obbligato part of Mahler 5, used the G crook to play that part on the premier. The horn he used at the time could be crooked in F, G, and A, and may be seen here with other information. He was apparently a fan of the G crook.
Again, it may be legend in regard to Mahler 5, but it was an interesting enough legend to work out the horn, and I’ll write more about it at a later date. The famous solo part certainly pops out better on the G crook than on the F.
Also, I have one more trick up my sleeve with this instrument, I should be able to set it up as an ascending 3rd valve horn that stands in F, such as was used in France. I certainly have the slides to do it, more on that at some later date.
In any case, this horn is done! From vision to completion and a very nice result, with many lessons learned.
I still have a Bb crook to finish for the first project horn of my sabbatical (the Gumpert model horn), and I’ll go back to that next before I start another big project. More on that soon.
Update: That crook was finished!
Continue in the Sabbatical Series
