THE GNAT I assembled this natural horn from a stock replacement leadpipe, a bell section from a B&H Oxford single Bb and 1/2" O.D. brass tube. I obtained the tube in 12 foot lengths with a wall thickness of 0.025". I have only played two other natural horns and did not take the opportunity to examine either very closely. So I worked from photos I could track down on the web and intuition. My best reference was the photo in Rick Seraphinoff's brochure of the "Classical Cor Solo".

The Gnat

The bell was cut down to 10" and the ring soldered back around the edge. I decided to make tuning crooks to eliminate buying several leadpipes required to make terminal crooks. The first crook that I made was the F (Shown installed on the horn). My attempts to make a full Eb crook were unsatisfactory so I came up with a whole-tone coupler which is shown installed on the upper leg of the F crook. A semi-tone coupler came next, made from two trumpet slide knuckles and some straight lengths of tube which is seen on the lower leg of the F crook in the photo. I next made a G crook out of the remains of earlier attempts. I have been unable to fashion an A crook for this horn as I can't get the tubing short enough.

Shortening the horn to make the A crook possible would make the rest of my crooks too high so I will have to live without it. The horn can be played in G, F#, F, E, Eb and D using primary crooks and adding either or both couplers.

I have combined several Eb conversion slides from Oxford and Besson horns into a C crook. It consists of nearly 90" inches of tubing in four, six inch coils. It looks like it belongs on a still but it saved buying another 12 foot length of tubing for just one crook.

This is my first effort in creating an instrument mostly from scratch. I hope future efforts will evolve. I have shown the result to several horn players and all were impressed. One instrument repairman seemed very impressed.

I do not have the facilities to construct bells or leadpipes so my efforts will remain in converting salvaged valve horns. I am still learning how to play this Frankenstein's Monster. I have, so far, played this horn in a community orchestra on Haydn's symphony No. 94, Mozart K.V. 509 and Beethoven No.1.