What is the best home depot alphorn? While beginners used to practice with garden hoses, you can now find various experiments on YouTube with sanitary pipes and cardboard tubes, with wooden slats, flower pots and hoses of all kinds. I have tried out a few things myself. The watering can alphorn convinced me the most. Yes, the watering can is superior to the vulgar garden hose! Here’s a quick taste:
Depending on the tuning, the instrument consists of pieces of tubing totaling slightly more than three meters in length. As is well known, an alphorn in F has an overall length (including the watering can) of 12′; an F horn 11’5” – fine tuning is done with secateurs. I use air-conditioning drain hose of different diameters – a little more than 3′ of 1”, about 6′ of 3/4”, and small pieces of 5/8” and 1/2” to accommodate the mouthpiece. Pieces put together and fixed with insulating tape give something similar to a conical shape.
For the cup I use a watering can made of solid plastic. Thin-walled cheap casting cans generate less resonance; metal cans sound awful. Small watering cans have too little volume [sic]. I use a 10 liter model from Stöckli. The red version of this traditional Swiss company seems to me particularly appropriate for an alphorn (there is also a green version as well as a black model made of recycled plastic). Even with such a high-end watering can, the cost of the alphorn is less than 50 CHF / EUR. If you are also looking for an alphorn mouthpiece that is as inexpensive as possible, you can use the garden hose mouthpiece from Roland Schwab or a cheap model from Thomann.
The intonation of my watering can alphorn is absolutely clean in the 4th-16th overtone range. This way, most solos and 1st and 2nd voices can be played. Only in the very low range from the fundamental to and including bass G the quality of the sound goes down the drain.
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