Antique Musical Instruments/Elkhart single french horn

Advertisement

Expert: - 3/30/2007


Question
I have a single french horn engraved on the bell with a diamond shape. Inside the diamond is "The ELKHART" and
around the inside edges of the diamond it says "Elkhart Ind. USA" and "-BAND-INST-CO-".    The serial # is 150018.

Based on the history of the Elkhart band instrument company, this must be an elderly horn but the lacquer is in wonderful shape and the horn appears to be playable (rotors move, slides are free).

I have a 10 year old first-year horn student that I plan to give this to -- is that a bad idea?

Answer
I don't see why is should be a bad idea.  You may want to get it serviced and cleaned so that it is in good working order, easy blowing and trouble free.  As your student becomes more accomplished, he/she will probably want to move on to a double horn, but it would seem to be a good place to start.

Antique Musical Instruments

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

Kenton Scott

Expertise

Please note: My area is BRASS instruments, not other wind, string or percussion instruments. I will provide information on antique, obscure and out of production BRASS instruments. 1) Please don't ask for evaluations, I'll not provide them on this site. 2) I am often asked very similar questions, so I'd invite you to first check on Horn-u-Copia.net. Much of the information I have garnered about this topic, I have posted on this WEB site.

Experience

I perform in several historical bands, have informally researched the area, repair brass instruments, and operate a Forum dedicated to the topic at http://horn-u-copia.net

Education/Credentials
B.S. Ed, M.S.

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.