First Horns
-
The first horn I learned to play on was a Conn 14A. It was a rental that my parents got for me when I started band the summer before 4th grade. (1964) It was a nice horn. I had it for 2 months and then my parents bought me a used trumpet. I had my choice of a Roth that looked old and worn and a shiny used American Standard. I chose the shiny one. Yes they do make toilets and apparently in the same factory by the same artisans. It had no center of pitch whatsoever. Consequently it was years later that I learned what center of pitch meant.
-
@Mike-Ansberry said in First Horns:
The first horn I learned to play on was a Conn 14A. It was a rental that my parents got for me when I started band the summer before 4th grade. (1964) It was a nice horn. I had it for 2 months and then my parents bought me a used trumpet. I had my choice of a Roth that looked old and worn and a shiny used American Standard. I chose the shiny one. Yes they do make toilets and apparently in the same factory by the same artisans. It had no center of pitch whatsoever. Consequently it was years later that I learned what center of pitch meant.
Yeah, the American Standard brand was owned by the H.N. White company, and was sold as a low-end student model. About the same quality as the Cleveland cornet I started out on, also made by H.N. White.
-
@Mike-Ansberry said in First Horns:
The first horn I learned to play on was a Conn 14A. It was a rental that my parents got for me when I started band the summer before 4th grade. (1964) It was a nice horn. I had it for 2 months and then my parents bought me a used trumpet. I had my choice of a Roth that looked old and worn and a shiny used American Standard. I chose the shiny one. Yes they do make toilets and apparently in the same factory by the same artisans. It had no center of pitch whatsoever. Consequently it was years later that I learned what center of pitch meant.
Entertaining exaggeration, but lets be clear: American Standard band instruments were a brand of the Cleveland Band Instrument Co. (founded just after WW1) which HN White continued after buying Cleveland. The line at first was an intermediate brand as it had been under Cleveland (which was originally a pro brand name), then became a student line. A few years before the White family sold their company to Nate Dolan to become King Musical Instruments, American Standard was rebranded as "Tempo". Meanwhile, dating back to the early twentieth century if not before, the American Standard Co made plumbing fixtures. That company moved its operations to Mexico at the end of that century, spurring its nick-name in the trades "Mexican Standard" - but it is still in business to this day. Completely separate entities.
-
Yep. I knew that American Standard was a company absorbed by H.N. White. Just a little attempt at humor. It was a terrible instrument.
-
@Mike-Ansberry Can we continue to say that that American Standard horn was a really $hitty instrument? (sorry for the bad pun).
