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Thread: Alto horn mouthpiece

  1. #1

    Alto horn mouthpiece

    I made a great decision the other day, I purchased a circa 1930 Conn alto horn. It was just sitting on the wall wanting to come home.

    I got a mouthpiece with it, but it is not an alto horn / tenor horn mouthpiece.

    My understanding is that this horn has a conn #3 bore, which is 0.5 inches.

    Does anyone know which modern alto horn or tenor horn mouthpieces will best fit it (in terms of shank size)?

    The main ones seem to be:
    Dennis Wick heritage
    Dennis Wick classic series
    Bach
    Yamaha

    The yamaha 301 has a smaller bore than this instrument was advertised as having.

    I have also seen a post saying that a Bach mouthpiece was too large for an old Conn horn.

    The mouthpiece that I currently have is a patrick hybrid trumpet. It is great for the high notes, but its rim is really much too small.

    Any other impressions of these mouthpieces would be helpful, as they are not in stock locally, so I would have to order one.

  2. I will look in my mouthpiece collection and also measure my alto horns. If you have access to way of accurately measuring the inside diameter of the mouthpiece receiver, please do so and post it. (Any instrument repair shop or machinist should have a set of calipers to measure this if you do not.)

    Although they do not list an alto horn, this listing of receiver sizes on the Kelly mouthpiece website should give you an idea of what size your alto has if you have a variety of mouthpieces for other instruments to compare. In other words, which other mouthpieces go in too far or too little?

    https://www.kellymouthpieces.com/shanks/index.asp
    Last edited by Will; 10-22-2019 at 11:06 AM. Reason: typo
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  3. #3
    The bore of the instrument doesn't really have a direct correlation to the size of the receiver. If a trumpet mouthpiece fits, this is usually almost exactly the same size as an alto horn / tenor horn mouthpiece stem - so a modern alto/tenor horn mouthpiece will fit.

    I'd suggest that the DW Heritage is probably the best bet for an antique instrument like that. Antique instruments work best with antique mouthpieces, and they tend to work better with mouthpieces that are on the smaller side. The Heritage series has some facets in common with antique mouthpieces. I'd say to try a DW Heritage 3 or 4.
    --
    Barry

  4. #4
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    You might search for mellophone MP's as well.

    Dennis

  5. I just re-habbed an older Yamaha YAH-201 student model alto horn belonging to the New England Brass Band. I purchased a DW 2 tenor horn mouthpiece that fits the leadpipe/receiver just fine.

    Doug
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  6. #6
    Hi
    i want to ask if someone use in a alto horn a mouthpiece bach n°6 A377 if you can tell me the diameter dimensions (min and max) of the conical shank.

    thanks very much
    Last edited by artem; 01-21-2023 at 06:13 AM.

  7. If you write these guys, they'll know what to do.
    https://www.jk-klier.de/en-gb/mouthpieces

    I play their mouthpieces on my tenor horn and bass cornet.

  8. Quote Originally Posted by artem View Post
    Hi
    i want to ask if someone use in a alto horn a mouthpiece bach n°6 A377 if you can tell me the diameter dimensions (min and max) of the conical shank.

    thanks very much
    Specifications for all the Bach mouthpiece shanks are on page 34 of this manual.

    https://gmedia.gewamusic.com/externa.../get/38256.pdf

  9. #9
    thanks to everyone for the answers

    Click image for larger version. 

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    the receiver opening diameter it's 0,432" at the distance of 7\8" from the right of the shanks or at the left-end of the shank ?

    i had a alto horn with a diameter of 0,457" .

  10. #10
    I know this is a bit late to the party, but in the English speaking world, Alto Horn shank is almost always 9.8mm. If a Trumpet mouthpiece fits the receiver, then it's probably 9.8mm. For American Alto Horns, the smaller Yamaha sizes are a good fit. The bigger British sizes will work on an Eb Alto Horn, but not for an instrument designed to play in F...unless you enjoy pain. It's not an easy mouthpiece to get, but I actually really like the Yamaha TMPAH. Don't use a modern Marching Mellophone mouthpiece. It's completely wrong for what an Alto Horn wants. Actually, based on my testing, Marching Melly mouthpieces aren't good for anything.

    I'll add that since I have no experience with Conn Alto Horns of that era or their mouthpieces, I might still be wrong. The reason for this is that Conn has a rich tradition of using wacky proprietary mouthpiece shanks, and no one bothered to document them. I've made some efforts in that department with 9'Bb things, but the market for antique instruments and mouthpieces is such that I'm extremely limited on how much I can do.

    In terms of what's out there, you'll find:
    8.7mm - Cornet
    8.8mm - Small-shank Mellophone (Bach still sells this)
    9.5mm - European stencil Mellophone size (York)
    9.6mm - Yamaha Flugel
    9.7mm - Tenor Cor (Couesnon, Courtois)
    9.7mm or 9.8mm - Trumpet, Marching Mellophone
    9.8mm - Alto Horn (Wick, Yamaha, Bach)
    10mm - Althorn (European stuff)
    10.3mm - Bach Alto Trumpet
    10.5mm - Large Alto Horn
    Hobbyist. Collector. Oval rotary guy. Unpaid shill for Josef Klier mouthpieces.

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