I have played a lot of horns. I switched to the horn in high school and first played a school 6D and then an 8D. I remember both of them vividly; I am sure many readers remember their first horns very clearly.

Soon, by the middle of high school, my parents helped me purchase a Holton H177. I went to college with that horn. However my school owned a number of nice horns including an Alexander 103 and four Elkhart 8Ds, and I switched over to a school owned E series 8D. Not long after that I purchased a 500,000 series 8D. It was a great horn at that time….

I played that horn through schools into my Doctoral studies with some work to the horn (cut bell, valve work), then had an opportunity to purchase an early Paxman triple. I loved some things about that horn and it was my primary horn for a while, but after about a year and a half I sold it and purchased a Holton descant and also a Yamaha 667. That was the combination of horns I used when I won the third horn audition in Nashville. After I got tenure there I switched back to the 8D, which by then had been tweaked further with fully rebuilt valves, a Lawson leadpipe, and a Lawson flare (as, at the time, the Nashville section had become mostly Lawson, but when I was hired was mostly Chicago style brass horns).

After I left Nashville, one day was practicing away and noticed that the first branch was caving in on that old (1955) 8D! So I patched it and went looking for horns again — and purchased the Paxman 25A that remains my primary instrument,

I used it on both of my solo CDs. Although I did for several years use a Paxman 83L triple as my main horn, up until late this past summer in fact. This photo is of the 25A when it was shiny and new.

If you see me perform at the Southeast Horn Workshop next weekend I will however be playing on an old model Paxman descant (a “pre-40”). It is a great horn for the Telemann concerto, which is the main solo work I am playing there.

As to mouthpieces, I have played seriously on dozens and I own at least 50 and probably close to 100. Certain mouthpieces work better on certain horns. There is no one best mouthpiece that works the best on all horns; you have to be open to a little experimentation. Right now I am very happy with my Laskey 80J, if you are looking give the Laskey G and J cups a try, they are great mouthpieces.

UPDATE 2011: At present I have “gone home” to a custom Geyer style horn (similar to the 667) with one of several mouthpieces that suit the horn. For general playing and teaching it is a great horn, and I still have options, as I use the 83L triple quite often still as well.

UPDATE 2014: Glad that I hung on to the triple! I used it on the new trio CD.

UPDATE 2019: But my main horn now for several years now is a Patterson Geyer model.