Hornfolks My absolute opinion. If one purchases an 8d; one would wish to do his/her best effort to obtain an Elkhardt 8d. Especially L,M,N series and perhaps even the rarer earlier series. One may do quite a bit of shopping, searching & haggling with collectors of these wonderful horns; but it is WORTH it. I had an L series & loved it for 20 yrs. It got trashed on a Mexico City bus (not my fault).
When they moved the factory to Texas, the quality of 8d's fell quite dramatically. I accidentally, due to the purposeful action of a dishonest music store owner in Alabama, obtained an 8d that I was told was an Elkhardt; however proved to be an hybrid (some Texas some whatever.....) It was a piece of ****; played out of tune; valves froze up; metal too thin for my taste . I got rid of it after 2 yrs, bought my Millenium Merker 2000 & loved it. Still have it; still love it but it is not the same as an 8d..... If I could get another Elkhardt 8d I would fork over the $ in an instant if I had it. I understand the factory has moved to a different location & improved the quality of the 8d. I have not played any of these horns, therefore cannot offer my honest opinion; however should I come across one, the list will know my honest thoughts, both good and not so good. and as far as placing a different model of leadpipe on a horn. One wishes to be most cautious in doing this. I had a (particular unnamed brand) of leadpipe installed on my old Alexander Mainz horn; which; prior to this, played perfectly on tune; tested perfect on a chromatic strobotuner. After the leadpipe was installed, the horn played FEROCIOUSLY out of tune. In addition, the PERSONS (I will not give out the name because everyone knows who they are...); did something to the valves that caused them to leak worse than they had before; in addition, they polished the horn so much that the metal became quite thing (it was unlacquered. I had to sell it & got my Elkhardt, due to a happy coincidence in Moss Landing, CA where an antiques dealer had 2 of them for $150.00 apiece purchased from a dentist who had intended to hang them on his wall as garden ornaments. Thank God I got to that horn before someone else. It saved my playing. best wishes to all of you Rachel Harvey > >From: "Luke Zyla" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Subject: Re: [Hornlist] leadpipes on 8D > >Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 22:48:13 -0400 > > > >All I can say is that I wasn't pleased with the upper register and the > >focus of the low register on my 8-D. The goal of a company like Conn is to > >>>maximize profit by producing the best horn for the lowest price. This > >involves > >compromise. _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
