Are there any sources of gemshorn instruments (made of cattle horn, buffalo horn, etc.) that do not cost an arm and a leg?
You can buy cattle horn bugles at local souvenir shops in the US$10 price range. While I would expect any gemshorn to cost somewhat more than that, considering the construction involved, it would be nice to be able to find them for less than the hundreds of dollar price tag most of them carry. Lark in the Morning offers a sopranino for US$175.
Hi Walden,
Wouldn’t hold out to much hope for an
inexpensive Gemshorn right now. The thing
is every Gemshorn has to be made one at
a time from an actual animal horn and since
each animal horn is different it’s a
very labor intensive process and there is no way to streamline production. $175.00 is a low price and we don’t sell them for less than $265.00. Excellent quality instruments made
in Germany. We’re considering developing
plastic models that would be inexpensive
but that’s a long term project, one year
at best. Hope this helps explain the
cost.
Kelhorn Mike
As I sold musical instruments for years, there was a phenomena that I noticed that could happen with this product, though the demand is not great.
Mexico would be the ideal source for such a product but it would probably take a foreign entrepeneur to get it started.
For years, the guitars that came out of Mexico were rarely beyond mediocre. Then some German people went there, insisted on quality control and consistent manufacturing methods and some pretty decent guitars were the result.
This would be the best scenario for your product. Now if Kelhorn would spend a write-offable vacation and make some deals…
And, he said, swerving way off-topic, you might be interested to know that cattle horns have special significance in Mexico and their history, owing to a lack of steel manufacturing capacity. The cattle now called Longhorns that were around in those days provided horns so large, that they were used as SHOVELS during the Cal. Gold Rush by the Mexican miners, leading to the expression,
“by the great horn spoon!”
Honest!
I figured there wasn’t enough demand for them to produce inexpensive third-world imports.
Hi,
I did a check about “Gemshorn” in Germany as I knew it was the shephards whistle here and found only this page for selling them which is the Homepage der Spielleute http://www.spielleute.de/gh.htm . As it looks to me, nowadays the Gemshorn usually seems to be made from the horn of cows and was probably in the past made from the horn of these rare hill animals which we call Gemse thats why the name (?) As you can see even these horns on the page are from cows they are not in the price range you would be looking for. I have seen them in handworkers fairs over here and I think to remember they have been cheaper then but do not know where else to look.
Good evening to all of you
Brigitte
The Early Music Shop sells these, too. http://www.e-m-s.com , I think. Funny that this and the thread on the bombarde would come up in the same day.
Charlie
[ This Message was edited by: chas on 2002-05-28 18:50 ]
On 2002-05-28 18:49, chas wrote:
The Early Music Shop sells these, too. > http://www.e-m-s.com > , I think. Funny that this and the thread on the bombarde would come up in the same day.Charlie
It’s no coincidence. I read the Early Music Shop post on the bombarde thread, saw the gemshorns at the EMS site, and came back and posted this gemshorn thread.
We’ve made and sold Gemshorns for quite
a while now and it’s not only labor intensive
to make a good gemshorn, it takes a very
skilled and well trained person
to do it. George is the only one in our
shop with that skill and knowledge. We’ve
got a handful of people who can make our
whistles but Gemshorns are a good step
beyond that. There are quite a few good
makers in Europe and the cheaper ones
are from the east (i.e. Czech Republic)
where they are happy to get a little
less for their still quality instrument.
Without getting into specifics you
can’t streamline production on Gemshorns
made from actual animal horns since EACH
HORN is different. It’s not like making
guitars or whistles for that matter. We’ve
thought about commissioning injection
molds to make consistent plastic instruments
for some time now but until we or someone
else does this don’t look for inexpensive
gemshorns in the marketplace.
Kelhorn Mike
On 2002-05-28 15:40, Goldie wrote:
… and was probably in the past made from the horn of these rare hill animals which we call Gemse …
Capricorns
o.k. I was too lazy yesterday but checked now… capricorn is in German “Steinbock”, my “Cassel’s Dictionary” tells me that Gemse is chamois 
That sounds right. Not that I know the difference between a Steinbock and a Gems when I see one. But I do know what a Gamsbart is…
I remember a instrument builder in Columbus Ohio that sold synthetic Gemshorns. They were made of a white colored plastic and look a Gemshorn. I don’t remember what the performance of it was like. It might be a good cost alternative.
On 2002-05-29 22:46, Daniel_Bingamon wrote:
I remember a instrument builder in Columbus Ohio that sold synthetic Gemshorns. They were made of a white colored plastic and look a Gemshorn.
This sounds interesting. So far I haven’t found any leads (by searching Yahoo) to where to find him. But this might be more authentic, in appearance anyway, than the cattle horn models.
Perhaps some enterprising ocarina maker could produce a clay version.
I’ll ask the person who owns one and see where he got it.