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During my sabbatical in the spring of 2021 I rebuilt four horns of interesting designs, the third of those being a Geyer single F. The basic story on that horn was I was able to buy the body of a Geyer single F with no bell (!) and not the original leadpipe. For more on this story, start here:
Fast forward to early this year. The horn played OK, yes, but (as it came to me with no bell and a very damaged lead pipe) I had used King bell and a Yamaha lead pipe. I wanted to make it better.
I contacted natural horn maker Richard Seraphinoff about getting a blank for a more appropriate lead pipe, and besides that blank, I was extremely lucky to locate something else – an orphan Geyer bell that could complete this horn. It was not in great condition, with many patches, but matched the horn body perfectly.
The finished project is below, but be sure to read on!
Patches, patches, and more patches
It has been said that a much-loved vintage horn will have patches. The horn body and the Geyer bell when they got to me both had holes to deal with and patches from prior repairs. In the original rebuild I had to make several patches, and I do pride myself in making nice, artistic patches. In this second rebuild, I added yet more. Everything that was leaking or looked likely to leak was patched with the horn body apart for better work. You can only see some of them in the photos. Why so many holes?
Seamed tubing
Other than the inner and outer valve slides the horn, which are seamless tubing, the rest of the horn was made with seamed tubing.
While it is pretty universal today, the process of making seamless tubing was not invented until 1885. I’d need to study it more, but it seems that for brass instrument construction seamless tubing was not that common before the 1930s. Most likely anything prewar would more typically have seamed tubing, rolled from flat sheet.
In this horn body, a number of cracks have opened up along the seams. There were patches on the horn before I got to it, and I left those alone, but clearly they have to do with either open seams or damage. Also, the hand guard on the bell is placed oddly more toward the bell than necessary, I suspect hiding some significant dent work or damage.
Other miscellaneous fixes
Besides bending and finishing the lead pipe blank (2″ shorter than the one that came on the horn; the pitch level is great now), a big fix, for me, was I made a close replica of a missing brace between the valve section and the main slide using Yamaha parts. You don’t notice it unless looking closely, which was my goal. In the photo above, with the horn in progress, the new brace is connected to a third valve slide. Witness marks showed me where it needed to be.
The bell brace, lead pipe brace, and pinky ring are not Geyer parts but are vintage and similar to what he would have used.
In all cases, I tried to do my very best work (I’m a hobbyist repairman, not a pro) but also aimed to not over-repair anything. The horn still shows its age, as it should.
How old is it? Who was it made for?
There are people out there with more expertise than me in dating Geyer horns. I’m guessing the body and bell are both 1930s era, pretty certainly pre-WWII. There is no serial number present.
The design is based on a design used by C. F. Schmidt. The “Eb crook” main slide is not an Eb crook, the horn stands in F. I feel that single F horns with this type of main slide tend to play the best.
As to who it was made for, I’m thinking it was a student model, if for no reason other than it was made clearly for a player with small hands. But Geyer being Geyer, he was hard wired to make a good horn no matter the age of the intended player.
How does it play?
It really plays very well, I’m very pleased with the final results. While I’m sure it could benefit from a valve job, even without one the scale is surprisingly even, it’s nicely responsive, and the tone is what you might expect from a Geyer horn.
With the Geyer done, I have more projects planned for when I have time over the break, including work on one of the other Sabbatical project horns. More on that another day.
