An Overview of Each of the Horns

     Hello everyone! For those of you who don't already know, Pierce and I have started a project in which we are going to attempt to restore some old horns to a much better quality. This will be a fun project for us to take on in order to learn more about instrument repair and restoration as well as hopefully make some cool looking horns once we're done. We found these horns on eBay one day while we were just looking around and decided that they would be a lot of fun to restore. In this blog we will dive in detail for how we are restoring them as well as give some progress updates as we go. 

   The Horns

    The horns we bought came from France (in under a week!) in pretty rough condition. There are 5 of them, two Bb's, two Bb-C convertibles, and one C. I'm going to go over what we know about the horns as well as their damage. Due to covid-19 Pierce and I cannot meet up to work on the horns so I currently have two of them and Pierce has the other three, at least for now this is how the situation will be. Pierce took some lovely pictures of all of the instruments so we can post some great before pictures. We have a ton more pictures than are posted on here, if you want to look at them let me know and I can send them your way.

Pool Horn

The pool horn, as we so lovingly call it is in very rough shape it looks like somebody left it in a pool for about 3 months. It's one of the Bb horns and we don't know what model the horn is however there is a serial number so we might be able to trace something off of that. 

As you can see the bell is quite warped and the lead pipe is broken off and half stuck in the tuning slide, the rest of the slides are stuck. However the valves do work which is a huge plus for a horn in this condition. There is some beautiful engraving on the bell but it is very difficult to see due to all of the tarnish. There are a large number of dents in the bell section including a somewhat crumpled bell rim.

Saxonor Paris

The Saxonor Paris is one of the nicer looking horns other than all of the problems. Unlike the pool horn it is not completely tarnished, but unfortunately only one of the valves moves. Hopefully the rest of them come out easily and do not need too much repair. 

The damage on this instrument is also fairly extensive, there is a massive hole in the second valve slide which will likely need to be replaced. All of the buttons are missing, and the tuning slide and first valve slide are stuck as well as the second and third valve. However there are far fewer dents on this horn than the pool horn and the finish is in much better condition. Interestingly the inside of the bell and the stamp appear to have a silver finish whereas the rest of the horn is gold, in some spots it almost looks brushed on.

F. Sudre Paris

The Sudre is the first of the Bb-C convertibles and is pretty nasty looking but nearly functional, the finish is quite spotted so it will likely need to be stripped and possibly redone. However a lot of it appears to be just tarnish which should come off easily.

The first thing to notice is that the lead pipe is missing, it will need to be replaced entirely. A lot of the damage on this horn is cosmetic, however all of the slides are stuck as well as the first valve. This horn will be a lot of work! The two valves that have come out are in very good condition which is amazing to see.

Louis Augu

The Louis Augu is another Bb-C convertible and it can fully come apart and is not missing any parts. Nearly all of the damage is cosmetic which is fantastic, this horn is nearly playable, it just needs some new springs and felts.

Nearly all of the damage on this horn is cosmetic except for the lead pipe which has a giant gash in the side of it. We've decided we are going to attempt to silver solder it but if that doesn't work then this horn will also need a new lead pipe. The valves are in slightly less good condition than the Sudre but still very workable. The finish on the instrument is quite spotty and tarnished again hopefully that can be easily cleaned up.

Huttl

The Huttl is the only C trumpet of the five and is one of the more interesting horns. It also can fully come apart which is amazing. We decided that we are going to wait and work on the Huttl together because it looks like a very interesting horn and we want some experience before tackling it.

One of the things worth noting about it is that the second slide is missing so that will need to be replaced. It is probably the most tarnished of the five except maybe the pool horn. However the slides and valves are all in astounding condition. There are quite a few dents in them though which shouldn't be too difficult to get out.

You will notice also that the springs are missing, this is why the valves are pressed down. Not because they are stuck. The finish around the engraving is interesting because it is almost white. We are not sure whether this horn is silver or lacquered either way it will need something done to it. The tuning slide is also not right, it falls out very easily so it will need some repairs or replacement.

Those are the five horns that we bought, this should be an interesting and quite challenging project for us to undertake. We hope you are as excited as we are about restoring these old horns to a higher quality. I will try to update this every week or so, if you would like to receive an email whenever they get posted you can signup on the sidebar.

-Troy and Pierce