The Handcrafted Cantesanu Double
The Cantesanu Double is an exceptional instrument, offering remarkable sound, power and finesse. The horn is free-blowing, quick-responding, focused, well-balanced throughout all registers, and comfortable to play. Thanks to the design concept and brass material processing, the horn retains an ideal balance of all high/mid/low harmonics, thus offering a sound that blends beautifully with other instruments and easily fills a symphony hall. An excellent choice for either high or low horn, orchestral playing, and solo work.
Musicians from major orchestras in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Turkey, Venezuela and New Zealand use a horn from Cantesanu as their first choice instrument.
Cantesanu chose the Geyer-Knopf wrap for the horn, with a bore size of .468" (11.89 mm). This layout best matches their concept of a simple, direct pathway for the air. They further improved the design by making all of the bends round and smooth. The main tubing entries into the valve ports are at a direct angle, avoiding unnecessary twists of the air column at these key points.
The continuously round design - mirrored in the signature braces - together with careful assembly and attention to detail make the horn not only great to play but also visually appealing.
Each horn is made with great care from beginning to end, one at a time. Every component is handmade to fit perfectly, without added tension; this one of the advantages of getting a handcrafted horn over a factory one, where an instrument uses pre-made parts from different sources and goes through many different hands and assembly processes before being completed; small mistakes can be overlooked this way and will take a big toll on overall quality. Have you ever picked up a horn that looks identical to the one next to it but it plays quite differently? This is the reason for that. A well-made handcrafted horn has a higher standard of quality.
Bending, forming and cutting is done in the shop, including the bell tail, crooks* and structural tubing. Cantesanu likes to have control over the way the brass material is processed, so its quality will be the same throughout the whole instrument. It would be easier, quicker and more cost effective to purchase and use ready-made parts, however they believe that if all the brass is being processed the same way, the result is a unity and evenness throughout the whole horn, and so well worth the effort.
(*) The small crooks for the second valve are not made in the shop. However, they are re-worked in order to bring the brass material to the same quality as the rest of the horn.
Brass material processing
The horn is made of yellow brass. Provided it has not been over-annealed (made too soft), yellow brass has the best qualities when it comes to resonance, sound quality, and projection by offering an ideal balance of low/mid/high harmonics.
Cantesanu uses a metal alloy with a low melting point as a filler for parts to be bent, providing excellent support for tubing walls during the bending process. More importantly, the brass material being prepared for bending doesn't have to be made very soft initially; it is never heated to a red glow in the annealing process (this starts at about 950+ degrees Fahrenheit) but only up to about 920 degrees, thus maintaining the metal’s integrity. Brass sections that are not to be bent or worked in some manner (thus re-hardened) are not annealed. Cantesanu found that keeping the brass closer to its raw state - or even denser once it's worked (bent, shaped, hammered) - provides an Alive feel and makes it not only better for response, harmonics and sound projection, but it also helps from a construction and durability standpoint.
In contrast, Pitch (a mixture or tar and resin) has been traditionally used as a filler for bending brass components. More recently, Ice has been used as well in some factories. However, the use of pitch or ice means that the brass has to be highly annealed in order to make it soft enough to be worked using these traditional methods. It is usually heated to well above 950 degrees Fahrenheit (red glow), a point form where it is unlikely the material will get worked enough to bring it back to its original state.
Glas Metallblasintrumente, a German company located in Markneukirchen, the heart of one of Europe's oldest and most highly reputed brass instrument manufacturing regions, provides the valve sets. Made specifically for the shop to suit the horn's design, they feature engraved valve caps and a refined mechanical system with steel balls inside bronze bearings and articulated joints for fast, quiet and smooth action. String linkage is also available, upon request. Nickel silver alloy was chosen for the rotor casings for durability.
Meinl is a name by now very familiar to hornists. Cantesanu uses Meinl bells for their horns due to their excellent response, rich sound colors and projection, as well as high quality standards.
All tubing for the shop comes from M&K Drawing, a company from Elkhorn, WI - North America's premiere brass instrument manufacturing region. The quality of these materials is second to none.
Original Alexander bell rings are imported directly from the factory.
The Handcrafted Cantesanu Double
The Cantesanu Double is an exceptional instrument, offering remarkable sound, power and finesse. The horn is free-blowing, quick-responding, focused, well-balanced throughout all registers, and comfortable to play. Thanks to the design concept and brass material processing, the horn retains an ideal balance of all high/mid/low harmonics, thus offering a sound that blends beautifully with other instruments and easily fills a symphony hall. An excellent choice for either high or low horn, orchestral playing, and solo work.
Musicians from major orchestras in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Turkey, Venezuela and New Zealand use a horn from Cantesanu as their first choice instrument.
Cantesanu chose the Geyer-Knopf wrap for the horn, with a bore size of .468" (11.89 mm). This layout best matches their concept of a simple, direct pathway for the air. They further improved the design by making all of the bends round and smooth. The main tubing entries into the valve ports are at a direct angle, avoiding unnecessary twists of the air column at these key points.
The continuously round design - mirrored in the signature braces - together with careful assembly and attention to detail make the horn not only great to play but also visually appealing.
Each horn is made with great care from beginning to end, one at a time. Every component is handmade to fit perfectly, without added tension; this one of the advantages of getting a handcrafted horn over a factory one, where an instrument uses pre-made parts from different sources and goes through many different hands and assembly processes before being completed; small mistakes can be overlooked this way and will take a big toll on overall quality. Have you ever picked up a horn that looks identical to the one next to it but it plays quite differently? This is the reason for that. A well-made handcrafted horn has a higher standard of quality.
Bending, forming and cutting is done in the shop, including the bell tail, crooks* and structural tubing. Cantesanu likes to have control over the way the brass material is processed, so its quality will be the same throughout the whole instrument. It would be easier, quicker and more cost effective to purchase and use ready-made parts, however they believe that if all the brass is being processed the same way, the result is a unity and evenness throughout the whole horn, and so well worth the effort.
(*) The small crooks for the second valve are not made in the shop. However, they are re-worked in order to bring the brass material to the same quality as the rest of the horn.
Brass material processing
The horn is made of yellow brass. Provided it has not been over-annealed (made too soft), yellow brass has the best qualities when it comes to resonance, sound quality, and projection by offering an ideal balance of low/mid/high harmonics.
Cantesanu uses a metal alloy with a low melting point as a filler for parts to be bent, providing excellent support for tubing walls during the bending process. More importantly, the brass material being prepared for bending doesn't have to be made very soft initially; it is never heated to a red glow in the annealing process (this starts at about 950+ degrees Fahrenheit) but only up to about 920 degrees, thus maintaining the metal’s integrity. Brass sections that are not to be bent or worked in some manner (thus re-hardened) are not annealed. Cantesanu found that keeping the brass closer to its raw state - or even denser once it's worked (bent, shaped, hammered) - provides an Alive feel and makes it not only better for response, harmonics and sound projection, but it also helps from a construction and durability standpoint.
In contrast, Pitch (a mixture or tar and resin) has been traditionally used as a filler for bending brass components. More recently, Ice has been used as well in some factories. However, the use of pitch or ice means that the brass has to be highly annealed in order to make it soft enough to be worked using these traditional methods. It is usually heated to well above 950 degrees Fahrenheit (red glow), a point form where it is unlikely the material will get worked enough to bring it back to its original state.
Glas Metallblasintrumente, a German company located in Markneukirchen, the heart of one of Europe's oldest and most highly reputed brass instrument manufacturing regions, provides the valve sets. Made specifically for the shop to suit the horn's design, they feature engraved valve caps and a refined mechanical system with steel balls inside bronze bearings and articulated joints for fast, quiet and smooth action. String linkage is also available, upon request. Nickel silver alloy was chosen for the rotor casings for durability.
Meinl is a name by now very familiar to hornists. Cantesanu uses Meinl bells for their horns due to their excellent response, rich sound colors and projection, as well as high quality standards.
All tubing for the shop comes from M&K Drawing, a company from Elkhorn, WI - North America's premiere brass instrument manufacturing region. The quality of these materials is second to none.
Original Alexander bell rings are imported directly from the factory.