Vintage Getzen Elkhorn Compensating Double French Horn with Case/Mouthpiece. Sale Benefits Music Education Nonprofit!

The proceeds from this sale benefit a nonprofit music education organization - Infinite Music -Giving kids the chance to experience the transformative power of music through education, appreciation, and performance!

This is a used Getzen Elkhorn compensating double French horn. The horn is in good working condition, however, there is a decent amount of cosmetic wear including missing lacquer, small dents and scratches and some discoloration. Please see pictures for condition. the slides are all working properly. The Valves are sticky but all moving. Given it's age and hasn't been played in sometime it could likely use a good cleaning ! Comes with Hard case and Vincent Bach Mouthpiece.

Here is a description of how the compensation double horn works taken from "Horn Planet":

The Compensating Double --

Double horns were developed by Edmund Gumpert and Fritz Kruspe in the late 1800s. The first double horns were based on a system of adding tubing which compensated for the different lengths between the F and the B-Flat horns. Today we call them "compensating" double horns to distinguish them from full double horns, which came about a short time later. The full double is by far more popular today, but compensating horns are still used by some hornists. Compensating horns are more difficult for some players to play in tune, but others prefer them because of their lighter weight - a result of the fact that there is much less tubing in the compensating horn than in a full double.
In most compensating horns, when the thumb valve is pressed, it directs the air through a length of tubing that produces the B-flat harmonic series, i.e. it is a B-flat horn. Each of the three valves, when pressed, then direct the air through additional tubing to lower the pitch by the correct amount, e.g. the first valve lowers it one step, second lowers it one-half step, and third lowers it one and a half steps. The three valve slides are exactly the correct length to lower the B-flat horn the proper interval.

When playing on the F horn side of a compensating horn, the air still goes through the B-flat horn tubing as before, but now it also goes through an additional length of tubing that makes it the correct length to produce the F harmonic series, i.e. now it is an F horn.  Because the length of an F horn is longer than a B-flat horn, there is another set of three short slides (one on each valve) to "compensate" for the different length of the F horn. When using the three valves, the air travels through the existing B-flat horn valve slides and the additional short, "compensating" slides.