Steve Shires building French horns?

[JohnL]

Saw this on the brassark.com website today:

The Brass Ark is excited to be the West Coast dealer for the exciting new French Horns made by Stephen Shires in Vermont, The Stephens Horn. This is number 6 and is a "Geyer" style instrument. These horns are made entirely by hand by Steve in his small shop. Steve is of course famous for his trumpets and trombones, but this new venture is exciting as he expands his repertoire and legacy into high performance French Horns.

What really caught my attention is that these horns not being sold under the Shires brand, nor are they being made in the Shires factory in Holliston, MA.

Rather than speculate, does anyone have a real information regarding this venture?

[blast]

It's true. He Sold the S E Shires name to Eastman so he is using a different label . Building horns at home. Nice.

Chris

[Schlitz]

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[JohnL]

Are these 100% him, or is he sourcing a percentage of the parts? I’d be interested in the rotaries used.

I'd expect that to be a closely guarded secret. Not that using third-party valves is necessarily a bad thing. Carl Geyer used valve sets made by Bernie Marston out here in California, and he (Geyer) is probably the closest analog to Earl Williams in the French horn world.

[Schlitz]

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[BGuttman]

... Kinda wished he took over Kanstul a little.

Steve is based in New England. Kanstul was in Fullerton (LA Metro). It's a bit of a stretch.

[greenbean]

Bruce, as a New Englander, you probably know that most New Englanders have no desire to live in crowded SoCal! It is Anaheim, I think. Median home price is ~$600,000.