Pimp My Horn!

Today was the last day to get stuff loaded in the crates before we left for Europe instruments, concert clothes, stowaways etc... (I practically fit in cello crate) I wanted to bring my new Lewis horn along on tour to begin breaking in but I am not ready to switch over to playing it entirely and so I am carrying on regular concert horn, my Rauch. I've found that it's always a good idea to have an extra horn around because you never know if anyone breaks a string, or trips and falls on their horn or even started blaming their horn for wrong notes(no not me, never )we would have a good spare on hand.  I don't know but it always seems like someone always has horn trouble when we are in another concert venue, even if it's only as far away as Greenville or Allen. Well, this is going to be a little farther trip than Greenville so I at least wanted to have a horn on hand that would play well Just In Case...

So I start going over what I need to get my horn ready to leave and I realized last week that I don't have a flipper on my new horn and I couldn't hold it for even short periods of time without it becoming uncomfortable. A flipper is a support to help hold the weight of your horn on the left hand at the index knuckle instead of having to deal with pinky hooks to hold the horn. I have a crooked left hand finger with a huge callous on it thanks to many years of holding a horn with a pinky hook. It was actually a point of pride for me and scoffed at the straps and ducks feet and ergo sticks that horn players use to help support the horn until my most recent visit to Chicago. I have to hand it to Ron Pinc, no pun intended, he makes the most comfortable hand rest flipper I have ever seen. I am a convert ever since getting one of Ron's "flipper" as I was corrected was the proper nomenclature in the Chicago horn scene. So, after playing on one of these flippers, I was unable to get used to my new Lewis horn without one. I called Ron a couple weeks ago after conceding that I do in fact need another flipper for my other horn. He said he would definitely be able to get me a flipper before the European tour. Well, he did in fact get me that flipper before the European tour, although it was a day before departure just in time for me to have it put on by local horn guru Dennis Houghton up in Keller, TX.

I love going up to Dennis Houghton's house because you never know who is going to be in his living room. Legend has it that at an international horn convention Dennis Houghton cornered Barry Tuckwell and invited him over for pancakes the next morning and wouldn't take no for an answer, he said come on, I make really good pancakes! So Barry Tuckwell might be over at Dennis' shop eating pancakes next time you are getting your horn worked on! The one and only time I met Julie Landsman she was trying out horns in Dennis Houghton's living room. I showed up at Dennis' house tonight  and in true form there was an old friend, David Lesser, Principal horn of the Dallas Wind Symphony, who I haven't seen in at least 9 months, in the shop getting a brace fixed on his horn.

Dennis' shop is also full of treasures!  It's like horn heaven! I found my 59' Geyer there on his wall the first time I came over and I have played horns that belonged to Dennis Brain and Herman Baumann as well as many many more great horns. I have played just about every make of horn on it's way through the shop. He has a wall of horns, boxes of leadpipes, and shelves of bells. This year he just expanded to include in new and improved work shop and will be making bells on a mandrel and will have a room entirely devoted to lacquering. The new addition has an Homage to Leutgeb whom the Mozart horn concertos were written for about the entrance. Plus, Dennis is just a cool guy, he'd give the shirt off his back to help you and always has time for a cup of coffee. I could tell you about the time he let me drive a bobcat in his back yard and I almost rolled the bobcat into the pool I was helping to put in, but we'll save that for another time;-)

 We had a short amount of time to do all of the stuff to get the horn concert ready and get it back in time before it went on the truck for the airport. First things first, I had to clean out my valves because they were really sluggish. We used brake cleaner from O'Reilly's to degrease my slides and rotors. Some people prefer Lanolin slide grease but I can't stand the smell and more than that it goes onto the rotors and makes them really gooey and slow. I like synthetic products by Hetman for my slides and rotors and bearings. Then we put on the flipper and moved the pinky hook. I think it must have taken about 4 trys on the flipper and 5 trys on the pinky hook of heating and re-soldering cooling then trying, then moving heating, re-soldering, cooling and trying. How does the saying go, if at first you don't succeed... I always feel so bad about having a someone move and remove again and again. That's why it's so nice to have such a easy going repairman! Then he helped me cut a hole in my hand grip so my flipper fits through the grip! He even found a couple dents that had somehow appeared from no where on my bell and made sure I didn't leave without my horn looking brand new again.

After all that work we got to enjoy the fruits of our labor and Dennis listened to me play excerpts on both horns, my new and old horn and then he played them both. There are two distinct qualities to the sound, awesome and AWESOMER!!! I'll let you guess which one we liked better, but both have really unique and complex characteristics to the sound. Can't wait to have my trusty new ax along side ol' faithful on the other side of the water! Thanks to Dennis for pimping my horn!!!

Now I just got to get my horn on the truck...

Keep ya posted!!!