In recent practice I’ve been testing mouthpiece rims in relation to some playing concerns and I cut two bells from vintage Mirafone horns. Getting not quite the results I would have expected.
Rim materials in review
I have not played silver- or gold-plated rim in years, due to metal sensitivity. When I left playing metal, I was initially using white Delrin plastic rims that were made by Tom Greer of Moosewood (I believe M-2 rims). I have three and used them on my trio CD and the single F horn solo CD.
Not long after that, I switched to a black Delrin rim from Osmun and then finally to black H-Kote rims from Houghton Horns (H-3 model). Was happy enough, although the H-Kote was hard to adjust to, it was so slippery. But it was the pandemic, I had time to do that.
This summer, looking for solutions to make my low range more comfortable, I tried a raw stainless-steel version of my H-3 rim and was like, oh, this is a bit better. Then, after a few weeks of that, I figured why not try the black Delrin again? And then maybe a week after that, what about those white rims?
This goes opposite to a Farkas book conventional wisdom, that you use wet lips so that your lips don’t get stuck on the mouthpiece. In my case (and I suspect in the case of a few readers, too), with the plastic rim my lips have more traction on the mouthpiece, and it does significantly stabilize my low range. The recent journey from H-Kote to stainless to plastic was all about gaining a little more, needed traction.
Aside: Google AI also has thoughts on plastic rims
I’ve mentioned before about how I’ve found it interesting, if that’s the right word, to search for certain topics on Google with the AI Overview. I did a search related to plastic rims and the French horn, curious what would come up, and they (of course) reference Horn Matters and have some thoughts. But still, AI does not play horn, and the results are kind of conventional wisdom stuff. And, of course, people asking these questions are not likely to click through to the underlying articles, which is a shame. This is why I’m working on a new book on the horn, not at all written by AI. Hopefully ready by roughly this time next year.
And bell flare fun
Friday, I finally had a block of time, and Arizona has cooled off some, so that I could get going on some horn building projects. One initial step involved cutting two bell flares off vintage Mirafone horns.
I’ve tried a few flares before. But the most obvious things I noticed were not what I expected. Trying them on my Patterson Geyer, I suspect they both sound pretty good. One is about the same weight as the Patterson flare, and one is heavier. The new flares both had these qualities really stand out:
Better low range- Worse high range
- Flat high range
Probably something to do with the shape of the flare. There is a physical explanation for sure. Just was not quite the result I expected.
It’s all again a reminder of how complex the system is when it comes to horns, and how there are a lot of things you will only notice and discover with good old-fashioned analog practice.
