Hi everyone!

I have a Josef Lidl BRNO horn. It's a full double, F-Bb.
First off, I am curious as to what the BRNO means. But I am really just beginning to look at buying a brand new horn. This one has quite a few dints and the valves get sticky regularly, even with proper maintenance.
I'm wondering what sort of brands I should be looking at (although I don't want to pay more than $5000) for something maybe a bit similar in the way it plays?
I also found a Josef Lidle Full Double LHR346 Horn, which can be seen here: http://www.hornmart.frhorn.com/lidl/double.html that I am very interested in.
When they say a professional horn, what do you think mine is?
And also, I'm very attached to my mouthpiece, but it has no markings on it. How do I tell what type/size mouthpiece it is?

Sorry if these are silly questions... I don't really know what I should be looking for.
Thanks everyone!

BRNO is a city in the Czech Republic. So BRNO for Czech Horns is like ELkhart for Conn Horns.

Are you sure the valves get sticky with proper maintenance? The valves should be oiled everytime you take the horn out to play (at least that often). And it depends on the oil you are using and how often the horn has been cleaned.

You mention $5,000.00. Australian dollars, Euro dollars, or American dollars?

The only way to tell anyhting about your mouthpiece is to measure it. Then you will know the measurements. By fitting what is known as a 'numbered drill bit' down the center you can find what the bore is. A Vernier caliper should tell you the rest you need to know. Will you ever be able to tell who made it? probably not, so if you like it do't lose it. You can get a copy of it made for you later in life.

Play a smany brands as you can. Unlike the USA Australia professionals aren't required, or pressured to paly any specific brand or model. On your West Coast there are a lot of pro playing Alexanders. Everywhere else is pretty spread out between Alexanders, Hoyers, PAxmans, Ottos, Yamaha, and Holton. You even have some Conn, Comford, Hill, and Rouch - And I think you even have someone playing on an Atkinson AG2000 (which are nice). I also know of several professional level players trying to switch over to Yamaha systems. Play whatever you can, take notes and review them every couple of months.

Ignore anyone or any business that uses the term 'professional'. It means nothing. A professional horn is one that a professional would use. See what your professionals are playing and understand most professionals have personally made, or at least personally modified horns. Just because Barry Tuckwell plays a Holton doesn't mean you will ever get the Holton model he plays. It's just like the gold clubs professionl golfers use. They don't use irons, they use blades and you are not going to find them in the local store.

What is your horn? If the valve sa re sticky it is a sitck horn and not capable of being played professionally. If you get your valve checked at the repair shop to find out WHY they are sticky and you can correct this, then it depends what the horn sounds like. It's all about what comes out of hte bell - it doens't really matter whose name is on it.


all your questions are good ones - no silly questions there.

Thankyou John.

Er, my valves are rotary valves, and they don't have strings, so I guess they're... ball valves, is that right?
I'll measure my mouthpiece at some point also, so I know how big it is.
Do all mouthpieces fit into all horns?

Thanks again

Rotary valves can have string lever mechanisms or mechanical lever mechanisms. Mechanical mechanisms can be a ball and socket type (mini-ball), a single strip of metal, or several straight 'tubes' of metal with bearings at each movement point.

You always need to oil the rotors in the valve casings, regardless of the type of lever. There is one exception and it is a certain model Finke Horn, but it is the only exception I know of as of today.

Do all mouthpieces fit into all horns? technically - No.
99% of the mouthpieces you see will go into 99% of the horns you see. However, to be correct for that instrument the shank of the mouthpiece needs to be seated a certain distance in the mouthpipe to truly fit 'correctly'. AND certain dimensions of the mouthpiece need to correlate with the interior tapers of the instrument to truly fit it correctly. A mouthpiece made and designed for a Horn can make a big difference in how hard you work as a player.

That said, I do not think young, inexperienced players should be spending hundreds and thousands of dollars buying custom mouthpieces; there are some very good standard mouthpieces that work well in most horns. The King H-2, Shilke 29 or 30, Farcus MDC, etc. These are relatively inexpensive standards that are known to work with most horns very well during our begining years (and can still be used in our later years of playing).

Thanks again John.
My valves are definitely miniball. I'm curious; is the string mechanism better or worse? It seems to me that it would be more... fragile. Is that right?

On a side note, I heard recently that when washing one's horn, putting bicarb soda in the water instead of soap is extremely effective, and gentle on the horn. Is this a good method?

miniball or string - which is better?
Neither. They are just different. I have piston valves, rotary strings, rotary miniball, and rotatry other type of mechanical. Some miniballs are better quality than others, the advantage is they shouldn't break like a string. The advantage to string is if it does break you can fix it yourself, you can't fix a miniball by yourself.

miniballs are more fragile. Strings are good old fashioned workhorses. I prefer string overall, but I'm an old timer. I do love my double compound lever action miniball thumb valves on my C horn though. You only move them 3mm to turn the valve 180degrees; you can't do that with string.

Washing your horn - bicarb is fine. Whatever you do use you want it to be mild and warm. Nothing extreme or hot. tepid tepid tepid.

Thanks alot John!
You've been a great help