Equipment
For classical music I play a Conn 88H with a Stork Custom 5 mouthpiece. I bought my 88H Elkhart while in college. I recently discovered that one of my friends, a jazz flute player, had a horn exactly like mine, same year and in almost mint condition, stashed away in a closet, and he graciously let my buy that one. Thanks, Bob Chadwick! For jazz and commercial music I use a King 2B Silver Sonic with a Bach 6 ¾ C mouthpiece. I used to play quite a bit of bass trombone, and have a Bach 50B single trigger horn with a lightweight slide. With this I use a Bach 1 ½ G mouthpiece. I used to have a Glassl alto, but I didn’t use it much, so I sold it. Good horn though. Nowadays, if I have an alto gig coming up, I borrow one. I don’t really care what brand I play, I’m equally out of tune on all of them! I use a Bach 11C mouthpiece on the alto. UPDATE: We’re doing The Magic Flute with the HGO Jan-Feb 2008, so I’ve been looking around for an alto. I’ve been thinking Conn or Courtois, but here’s the crazy part: I’ve been reading about a Chinese-made alto, based on the K&H Slokar model. It sells under different names, Maestro, Selman or Jin Bao. I found a dealer here in Houston, and bought one for, believe it or not, $160 including tax! It’s a pretty good horn! It plays kind of in tune, decent slide, nice sound. I came home and played it for my wife, and the first thing she said was that it sounded better than all the other altos I’ve been trying! It does have few quirks; the mouthpiece wiggles a little bit in the leadpipe, but I can live with that. A friend of mine has a real K&H, and it does play a lot better, but for the money, the Jin Bao is hard to beat. Of course, being a trombone nut, I’ve bought and sold (regrettably in some cases) and played other instruments over the years. I did play a Schmelzer Model 2 for a few years, and then one of my friends in Spiritual to the’ Bone fell in love with it and bought it. That was a really smooth horn with a big sound. I also have an awful looking King BB 4 valve tuba I play on dixie-gigs. It has to stay in the garage!