Equipment (Horns, Mouthpieces, etc.)

Hi.
My name is Jeremy.
I am a gear junkie.

Now that I've got that off of my chest, I feel better!

When I was younger, I had a Lawson poster hanging in my bedroom alongside a Holton and Alexander poster.  (And by 'younger' I do mean school-aged.)

As long as I can remember, I had been searching for the coolest horn and the most unique mouthpiece, etc.  I coveted a detachable bell horn once I first learned of it back in 7th grade.  Then, the concept of gold-plated mouthpieces rocked my world only 2 years later!  To me, this stuff was the ultimate horn "bling."

So, since being a lowly student, I've owned a lot of horns and an uncountable amount of mouthpieces.  My first baby was a Holton 281.  I had it for about 7 years and in that time, had it heavily modified. My old band director bought it from me for her daughter.  I believe she still owns and uses it.  From there, I moved to a Finke Americus, a Yamaha 891 Triple, a Lawson Fourier and now to my current baby, the Otto 180K in yellow brass.  Also in the arsenal are a Yamaha single Bb that I mostly use for practicing repairs on and an early Paxman model 40M descant horn that I just got from Ken Pope.

My mouthpiece escapades would be WAY too long for the Internet and would likely cause it to crash upon me uploading it.  So, I'll summarize and state that I probably owned every mouthpiece ever created (okay, maybe a little bit of an exaggeration).  Anyway, I've recently quite happily settled on Osmun's line of mouthpieces and have chosen a wide London Deep Cup and a V2 rim (thin, just the way I like it.)

What's the point of all of this?  I guess, if I had to ask myself 10, 15 or 20 years ago what I'd be playing, the last thing I would have said would have been a medium sized Geyer horn and thin-rimmed mouthpiece.  However, thanks to my facial melt-down, I have gotten good at throwing out preconceived notions.  After my chops melted down and began to heal again, I went shopping for a new horn.  Partially, I needed to get something new to help break old habits.  Partially, no matter how much I loved the idea of my Lawson Fourier, it wasn't the right horn for me.

I spent months searching for a horn and tried just about every kind under the sun.  In the process I learned a LOT.  Also, I happily discovered that there are a handful of small-shop American makers who are putting out great instruments including Stu DeHaro, Jacob Medlin, Felix Cantesanu, Darin Sorley, and Wes Hatch, not to mention folks like Jim Patterson, and bigger manufacturers.  Ultimately, it came down to 2 horns.  One was a Rico Kuhn 293 (actually, I also got to try and consider buying Jerome Ashby's old RK 393 triple - what a great horn and what a great player and person.  What a tragic loss!) and the other was the Dieter Otto 180K that I tried at Scott Bacon's place - Siegfried's Call.  Ultimately, I quite happily chose the Otto.  I have never found an instrument that better suited me as a player.  It truly feels like an extension of me rather than a hunk of plumbing stuck to my face.

On a side note - I still love my Otto and have not ever regretted choosing it.  It wasn't until AFTER I bought the Otto that I got to try Stu DeHaro's horn as well as Jacob Medlin's.  Had I tried either of these before my purchase, my decision would have been harder.  I do feel that the Otto is still a good  perfect choice for me.

If you do get a chance to try the Otto - don't pass it up.  Here's one bit of information though.
The mouthpipe on the Otto uses a European taper.  If you use an American (Morse) taper mouthpiece, it may play a little weird.  See if you can get a mouthpiece with a European taper and use your rim if you can.  In my case, rather than change mouthpieces, I went and got a Rico Kuhn leadpipe since the 180k and the RK 293 are so similar in size and tapers and the RK pipe uses Morse tapers.  It works like a champ.  FWIW, Osmuns mouthpieces are available with a European shank and his London cup is a GREAT match for this type of horn!

Since I've gotten my horn, I've become one of Scott's best salesmen!  I've converted a lot of folks to the Otto including a good friend/colleague of mine who has been an 8D guy for a LONG time.  His gold brass 180K with hand-hammered bell is on order now and should be in his hands in March.