Read what other horn players have to say about Medlin horns!

“I strongly encourage anyone interested in Geyer type horns to play a Medlin horn. Some of the things I love most about the horn are how the sound rings through the slurs, how easy the high range is, how great the low “G” (Shost. 5 range) barks out, how rich and creamy the sound is for Tchaikovsky 5 like solos, how the sound naturally blooms at Forte-Fortissimo but never breaks up or loses center. The horn has terrific overtone series intonation and is easy to tune. If you want to win an audition, have a horn that is built for a professional career, or play for the sheer fun of it, this horn is it. I don’t get any money from Jacob and endorse his horn freely. 3 of my students at UNC already play them and more to come! Great work Jacob!”

Andrew McAfee
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Adjunct Instructor of Horn
Triangle Youth Ballet Music Director/Conductor
Principal Horn, North Carolina Symphony (1992-2007)

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Medlin horns show promise to become quite popular once they have been ‘discovered’. Jacob Medlin’s study and knowledge, custom approach of building a horn to fit a musician’s needs and desires, and attention to playing and aesthetic details suggest that every horn will have consistent characteristics, yet each horn will be optimized to both fit the performing artist and bring out the best potential of a particular instrument. This recalls the best efforts of Geyer, in which every horn is similar, yet quite different and reflective of the ordering individual.

The upper register is warm, open, and singing without being bright – not pinched or requiring the player to physically ‘overcome’ the difficulties of playing high. The same instrument has solid and dense sounding middle and low registers. The intonation in all registers and dynamics is even. There is no pitch sagging in the upper register when making a diminuendo, and the sound is homogenous from note to note and low to high. Articulation is clean and quick to respond, yet the response allows beautiful slurs that have a liquid quality. The sound has great focus, yet is based on an aural concept demanding warmth and beauty first, with an air of mystery, and they seem remarkably efficient in the energy and effort needed to play them – qualities that help with pitch, accuracy, and confidence at the end of a tiring concert. They maintain that warmth of tone through all dynamic ranges.

These horns will deserve consideration when looking for a new instrument that will be easy to play and mechanically reliable while wanting to project a traditional horn sound.

John Cox
Principal Horn, Oregon Symphony

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My Medlin B/C horn is so little. It doesn’t weigh anything. Apart from a valve cluster, the wide arc of the wrap, and a bell it’s hardly there at all.

I’ve played all sort of horns including legendary vintage American, British, and German horns. Some of these were little better or much worse, than others. Only this little Medlin B/C horn plays the way a horn should.

How did Jacob do it? The result can only come from talent, experience, and a mind that’s open to what’s really going on with an instrument. He is all focus and energy, like a retriever when its attention is locked on a ball.

He put the little horn together and took it apart. He handed me or Rick Seraphinoff the horn and took it back again after we’d played a handful of notes. He worked until the horn’s sound had an exquisite balance of resonance and projection, until the dynamic and color range was like a dream you once had, until each note had its slot and the pitch was on target; trimming something here, adding a brace there, removing or adding solder… I’m usually the pickiest person in the group when trying a horn, the one with the vivid observations, the one who notices the subtle problems a horn has. After a point, though, Jacob had gone beyond where even I could tell the difference.

I remember sitting in the workshop trying the horn.

“Hey, Jacob — this note on the second valve is flat. I can’t get it in tune. The others on that valve are fine…”

“Here [Jacob cut a cork and wedged it in a gap between two tubes], now try it.”

The needle on the tuner locked dead center. Seeing the result, Jacob bustled to a spot in the shop and made a brace for that gap.

I’ve had to learn to play differently because the horn, unlike other horns I’ve played, actually works like it should. Every note blows straight and true, not one this way and another one that way like most other horns. The tone of each note, from the top of the range to the bottom, is perfectly identical and even. I don’t have to work so hard. When I  see a forte or sforzando, for example, the right amount of extra air is enough to create a dazzlingly dramatic and colorful result.

The C trigger isn’t needed for high notes because the B-flat horn is so great. Notes, however, that are cloudy or nearly useless on a double, such as the G and F-sharp below middle C and the G and F-sharp an octave below that, are centered, in tune, and have characteristic horn timbre on the C trigger. If you play any C-crooked second horn parts in 19th century orchestral repertoire, that C trigger will make those woodwind players turn around and smile.

You won’t regret spending money on one of Jacob’s horns. You’re actually paying for the horn, not just a name and an attitude. The name will soon mean something too, but I’ll bet Jacob won’t change the way he works, except to get even better with experience (which is hard to imagine). For Jacob, it will always be about the horn and the horn player and the music.

Scott Hawkinson

05/08/2010