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Thread: Alto horns?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
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    Spartanburg, SC
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    Alto horns?

    Hey I know this is a euph forum, but it seems like a good place to start. I am toying with getting an alto horn just for the heck of it as something else to play with during what seems like it may be a long summer of quarantine. So, does anyone on here play alto?

    I tried playing trumpet for a while and stunk at that as the mp was just too small. Is an alto horn mp closer to a bone/euph size?

    Has anyone played the Wessex Alto? How about the Packer 172?

    Thanks for any suggestions.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
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    Summerfield, Florida Sturgis, SD (summers)
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    The alto horn (called a tenor horn in the UK) has a mouthpiece whose size is about half way in between a trumpet and euphonium mouthpiece. I see from your profile that you are a trombone and euphonium player. How about considering a baritone? Wessex sells a very inexpensive one, but I do think they are all sold out and the coronavirus has messed up their inventory. Yamaha makes probably the best one if you have 6K+ lying around. Wessex can be had for under 1K I think. Maybe there are some used ones online.
    John Morgan
    The U.S. Army Band (Pershing's Own) 1971-1976
    Adams E3 Custom Series Euphonium, 1956 B&H Imperial Euphonium,
    1973 F. E. Olds & Son Studio Model T-31 Baritone
    Adams TB1 Tenor Trombone, Yamaha YBL-822G Bass Trombone
    Year Round Except Summer:
    Kingdom of the Sun (KOS) Concert Band, Ocala, FL (Euphonium)
    KOS Brass Quintet (Trombone, Euphonium)
    Summer Only:
    Rapid City Municipal Band, Rapid City, SD (Euphonium)
    Rapid City New Horizons Band (Euphonium)

  3. #3
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    Oct 2019
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    Spartanburg, SC
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    Baritone would just be another Bb horn to play with a slightly different sound. Tenor/Alto would be a chance to try something new. I play a bit of alto trombone, so I am used to the Eb fingerings.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by MikeBMiller View Post
    Baritone would just be another Bb horn to play with a slightly different sound. Tenor/Alto would be a chance to try something new. I play a bit of alto trombone, so I am used to the Eb fingerings.
    Gotcha! Tenor/alto horn it is. Wessex doesn't seem to have either of their two alto horn offerings available. I don't know anything about them.

    There are quite a few on ebay here: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...+horn&_sacat=0

    Happy hunting!
    John Morgan
    The U.S. Army Band (Pershing's Own) 1971-1976
    Adams E3 Custom Series Euphonium, 1956 B&H Imperial Euphonium,
    1973 F. E. Olds & Son Studio Model T-31 Baritone
    Adams TB1 Tenor Trombone, Yamaha YBL-822G Bass Trombone
    Year Round Except Summer:
    Kingdom of the Sun (KOS) Concert Band, Ocala, FL (Euphonium)
    KOS Brass Quintet (Trombone, Euphonium)
    Summer Only:
    Rapid City Municipal Band, Rapid City, SD (Euphonium)
    Rapid City New Horizons Band (Euphonium)

  5. #5
    I love me some alto instruments. There are endless variants and I own entirely too many of them. I'll tell you right now, there's no such thing as a perfect alto instrument. Every single one of them has some sort of fatal flaw. Usually intonation, but if it's not that, it'll be something else.

    Mouthpieces can range from below 17mm (Mellophones, French Horns) to roughly 20mm if you want to push it. 18mm to 19.5mm is the true wheelhouse for your 6'F and 6.5'Eb stuff. Even if you play smaller tenor mouthpieces like I tend to, an alto mouthpiece won't feel particularly similar. Still, I don't think it's a difficult embouchure to develop. You have enough room in the mouthpiece to use either a high or low brass embouchure.

    I know you'll think I'm being a jerk, but I'm dead serious. One of my favorites is actually my Орфей Alto Horn (Ukraine model). There's one on ebay here. For this horn (and likely every European one) you'll need a mouthpiece with 10mm shank. I'm not sure if Denis Wick Tenor Horn mouthpieces are 10mm, but Yamaha is not (9.8mm). Of course, you could avoid the hassle and just buy something new, but I thought I'd toss it out there. These old Soviet horns produce some really beautiful and powerful sound.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Hidden Valley, AZ
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    1,031
    I have a mint 1917 Conn mellphone if you're interested.

    Both low & hi pitch, plays in C, D, & Eb.

    DG

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
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    Tenor horn is a good choice if you are looking for a challenge that isn't a trumpet or cornet.

    I used to play Solo Tenor Horn in a brass bands, before jumping back to Euphonium. It's a great instrument, but has it's challenges! Eb tuning isn't great on cheaper horns, but it would be fine on your own at home.

    Mouthpiece wise, there aren't a lot of choices around. I know Bach do a couple, however I have never seen anyone play with them. The most commonly used are the Denis Wicks or Alliance pieces that come with Besson horns. If you want something not too small, see if you can get a Denis Wick 2, as it won't make a tenor horn sound too much like a bass trombone as a Denis Wick 1 does. The 2 allows you to fill up the horn enough, without cracking it.

    I've had a play of both the Wessex Tenor Horn and John Packer 172. They both weren't bad. The Wessex is a copy of the old Yamaha design, and the Packer takes it's design from the original Boosey & Hawkes Sovereign horn, which is often considered the pinnacle of tenor horn sound.

    If I were you, I would be trying to get a John Packer 172. They aren't hideously expensive, and seem to be reasonably well regarded by doublers.
    Jarrod Handley

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by MikeBMiller View Post
    Hey I know this is a euph forum, but it seems like a good place to start. I am toying with getting an alto horn just for the heck of it as something else to play with during what seems like it may be a long summer of quarantine. So, does anyone on here play alto?

    I tried playing trumpet for a while and stunk at that as the mp was just too small. Is an alto horn mp closer to a bone/euph size?

    Has anyone played the Wessex Alto? How about the Packer 172?

    Thanks for any suggestions.
    I bought the Packer JP372S from Reverb last week for$1,499. I’m a trombone player, and have been playing a Wessex Festivo for a couple of months with a Wick SM4XR. A great mouthpiece for that horn. The build and ergonomics of the Packer are superb! So far in my mouthpiece quest: Packer JP3 that comes with it looks identical to the Wick3 I have. Don’t like either. With the advice of Tom Black, YT tenor horn soloist, I ordered an Alliance 2A. Way better than the Wick 3. But for the hell of it I stuck a Bach 11C tenor bone piece in just to see if I could. I was able to put it in about a sixteenth of an inch. Shockingly it produces a pretty good sound. Especially nice in the upper register. Of course it makes the horn way flat. However there is enough there that I’m going to have a custom piece made with cup, throat, stem, back bore, and total length of the Alliance 2A with an ~ 22mm rim. I simply want to be able to play using my already developed trombone chops of 65 years. I’m 75. I don’t have forever to develop a new embouchure. Let us know what you end up doing. Karl Hammond is going to do the work for me. Joe.
    Last edited by S-euph; 05-04-2020 at 01:43 PM.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Location
    Spartanburg, SC
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    26
    My friend at a local music store is got bring in a 172 for me to try out.

  10. A little bit out of topic.... Is there anywhere (probably UK?) where one can get a Master Degree in tenor/alto horn?
    Some stuff

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