The Western Electric 16a

My 16a is from 1929 when it was installed in Pennsylvania. It was then taken down circa 1970 to storage. From that storage it found a European home back in early 2000.

The 16a was only designed that way to comply to the physical constraints of multi purpose theatres. What happened is that those constraints led to a beautiful industrial object. Replicas are made of these today yet they just cannot replicate the sheer beauty of an original that beyond the marks of time offers a very singular thing.

The 16a rings and sings full of colorations and really can only kind of work okay on certain types of music. I write about this on other pages here at my blog.

Yes I chose to hang this horn in all its beauty in my office area, the image below is taken from my desk. Its there to enjoy some music with all the flaws the 16a has but most importantly it’s aesthetics are inspiring as I work.

All fun…

One comment

  1. Hi Tim.

    You should build 16A horns out of the same wood as used in the 12A/13A horns. I think it would sound phenomenal.

    Sincerely, Maurice.

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