by Dennis Houghton
Houghton Horns began very humbly nearly four decades ago in 1985. My wife Karen and I had arrived in Texas after studying in Germany on a Rotary foundation scholarship in 1982-83. We had two kids, no money, and no resources, but we loved to play and teach young students about the horn.
During my college years in California, I used the services of Atkinson music for repairs to my horn. I admired what Bob Atkinson and his son Mark were doing. They specialized in horn repairs, maintenance, and customization for the top studio musicians of the time. A visit to their shop in Burbank was always interesting—and you had a good chance of meeting a famous horn player or two!
We came to the Fort Worth area in the fall of 1984, and I quickly began building a studio of about 50 horn students. Things went well, and many local directors liked my teaching, but I didn’t know what I would do for income during the lean summer months when schools were closed and the number of lessons dropped.
About a month before the school year ended, one of the band directors asked if I could clean some horns for him. I knew how to disassemble and clean my instrument, so I figured that might be a fun task. Cleaning horns with basic chemicals and my available tools was effective, and I enjoyed the work, but I had much to learn.
That first summer, I contracted work from about six schools and cleaned a total of 50 or 60 instruments. I’d had no training in soldering or dent removal, so I just stuck to what I knew. I also knew what local music stores were charging for similar services, and I felt like there was business potential—and as a horn player, I felt I could do a better job than most repair techs.
I enjoyed the opportunity to work out of my own home and to be near my wife and kids. My teaching schedule kept me away from home for over 50 hours a week, so being home was a very nice benefit.
Did you know that you can make a full-time living teaching a horn studio in many parts of Texas? The band programs are quite competitive in the large metropolitan areas, and the directors generally encourage the kids to sign up for private instruction. So, for about 20 years I was a full-time horn teacher during the school year but also doing repairs and cleanings out of my home on evenings and weekends. When the spring semester finished, the school programs would take quotes to clean and repair their brass inventory. By the third year, I was taking in hundreds of instruments over the summer and delivering the repaired horns just in time to start teaching again in mid-August.
 |
| Houghton Horns at IHS 54 |
As my reputation grew, my family grew too, and I needed more income. I would hire horn students part-time during summer to help with the cleaning work, and I continued to do all the high-level repairs, those involving soldering and dent removal, myself.
Brass instrument repair isn’t really rocket science. If you use some common sense, and if you care about nice results and quality work, you can be successful. I did have high standards for my repairs. I considered Caldwell Music in Abilene, Texas, to be the ideal. They operated from the former Conn factory that had been in town, and they had wonderful facilities for rebuilding, lacquering, and plating all wind instruments. Their overhaul shop took in beat up band instruments and made them look new again.
I was proud of my repair work on school instruments, but I wanted to do higher-level projects. Around 1995, I realized that I needed to learn about acoustics, and if I was to take my skills to another level, I should also understand metallurgy and machining.
Around this time, I saw the need for a full-time assistant. I began to train Chris Reddick in 1998; he learned dent removal techniques, soldering, and other skills. Early in 1999, Chris and I began to explore electroplating techniques for rebuilding valves. There were only a few shops in the country who were skilled at rebuilding rotary valves, and I felt we had a real opportunity. Chris and I started valve rebuilding together, but it quickly became apparent that he had a better aptitude for the work. He is mechanically oriented, naturally analytical, and tends to look at problems from a different perspective, so he quickly became the valve specialist in the shop.
All of this work was still happening out of my home…from a 400 square-ft. garage! In the summertime, we might have hundreds of instruments to repair. I rented storage units for added space, and we got very good at the logistics of rotating batches of work through the different repair stations and back into the van for delivery.
We all have our individual quirks and insecurities, and I certainly made my share of mistakes. I have a music degree and was never interested in the business world. But one thing I did understand was that the quality of my work was my best advertisement. Many times, I spent far too long on repairs to get them completed to my satisfaction. If a customer had a complaint or was unhappy about something, I would redo a project at no additional charge. This is costly in the short term, but the practice continued to build my reputation.
And did I mention that I was still teaching a full student load through these years, averaging 65 or 70 students per week? I taught in numerous north Texas public schools for 20 years while I built my business. This allowed me to have personal contact with music teachers on dozens of campuses, and it helped build my customer base. In the same way, Karen and I built relationships with each of our private students. Most of them moved on after high school to careers outside of music, but several of them became music educators. As they moved around the state, our reputation continued to grow.
Ben Allen began working with us part-time around 2002. Besides horn cleanings and repairs, I also contracted work on the big brass: tubas, euphoniums, Sousaphones, and all the other marching brass. Although we still had seasonal high times and low times, this extra work helped buoy us along. Each horn repair is unique, but after you remove around 10,000 dents you gain insight. Ben got his experience by working on hundreds and hundreds of school horns. I don’t think there’s a better brass craftsman in the country! Chris and Ben aren’t just employees; they are my trusted colleagues and friends. That doesn’t mean that we always get along—they are happy to point out when I make a poor decision—but I appreciate that they challenge me.
Our first Horn Society show was IHS Bloomington in 2002. I was excited to show my modest selection of custom leadpipes and repair services. Chris accompanied me on the drive to Indiana. On arrival at IU, I got butterflies when setting up in the exhibit room with all the big shops: Bob Osmun, Mark Atkinson, Alexander, Paxman. Our table was between Dietmar Dürk and Steve Lewis…not a little intimidating! Needless to say, we had much to learn about selling; in fact, I actually don’t remember selling a single thing at that show.
Chris and I did become very good at restoring and flipping horns over the next several years: eBay was still rather new, and there were good values if you knew what to look for. We would find an old 8D or Holton and often do a complete restoration: a valve rebuild, full overhaul, and lacquering. I don’t know how many horns we restored between 2002 and 2022, but it’s certainly in the hundreds. This work also gave us experience with nearly every brand and model of horn: Alexander, Paxman, Kruspe, Hoyer, C.F. Schmidt, and of course Conn, Holton, and Yamaha. This type of education can’t be purchased—we lived it!
Our entry into actual retail sales wasn’t until 2006, and it began in a small way. I received an email invitation from Engelbert Schmid who was looking to expand to additional dealers in the U.S. I had ordered a few spare parts and some bell rings at different times, but I was surprised he was even aware of Houghton Horns! My first thought was “I can’t afford to be a Schmid dealer,” but then I thought, “We can’t afford to pass up this opportunity.”
Karen, our son Mark, and I pooled our funds, and in July of 2006 we formed Houghton Horns LLC. The initial investment for inventory was daunting, so we recruited the help of Sterling Procter and Aaron Pino of the Ft. Worth Symphony. Wiring $20,000 to Germany was a huge leap at first, but it now seems commonplace.
We had these expensive new horns in stock, but they weren’t jumping off the shelf. Our company was so new that most hornists didn’t know about us, and we still had much to learn about the internet and retailing. Fortunately, we had also become dealers for Hoyer horns. These were quality instruments that we could sell to Texas students. The Hoyer 6802 was an excellent Kruspe-model horn, and we could sell it at or under the price of an American horn. Sometimes our distributor, B&S USA, would have discontinued models or damaged horns. I was good at introducing these models (or repairing damaged ones), and we quickly flipped many of these horns. This gave us some added cash flow and the stability to increase the stock of Schmid horns and other premium brands.
Sterling and Aaron weren’t our only investors. Over the years, we’ve had the help of Jim London and Greg Hustis of the Dallas Symphony, Greg Umber of the Phoenix Symphony, and many others. We also worked closely with local university professors and their studios. My friend Mike Harcrow was doing doctoral study at the University of North Texas, and he financed much of his degree by selling several horns he had acquired while working overseas using our repair services and consignment contracts. We have had countless opportunities like these to build relationships with people in the horn community. I don’t have a customer—repair or retail—that I don’t also consider a friend. This is the basis of our business: you would not cheat or mislead your friend. Good business gives value and is good for all parties.
In 2012, Derek Wright began to be involved with Houghton Horns. He had finished his doctorate at Arizona State University and was in the Dallas area freelancing and teaching a private studio. Derek had done tech support while working himself through school, and he had great computer skills. I first asked him to rebuild my repair shop website. We later had Derek take over design of the retail site as well, and ultimately, we merged both sites into one. Derek became a partner in 2015, and with his help we continue to grow. He enjoys the business aspect of the shop and has great insights and a knack for marketing.
If you’re outside of Texas, you may not know about the Texas Music Educators Association. TMEA is part of the reason that Texas school music programs are so strong. Their annual convention is held in San Antonio each February, and it’s always a big showcase for Houghton Horns. Our first time to exhibit there was in 2007 when we showed a few new instruments and some consignment and pre-owned horns. We were a very small shop, but we had more French horns than any other exhibitor. Our presence and our popularity at TMEA have grown each year.
My fascination with brass instruments started when I was fifteen, and it’s taken me to wonderful places and allowed me to meet extraordinary people. Through the years, my repair services brought business from many of the principal brass players in Fort Worth and Dallas Symphonies. Those connections have now grown and multiplied across the country. In 1991 when Dizzy Gillespie was playing his Caravan of Dreams show in Fort Worth, a friend brought him by my shop one afternoon. This bebop legend came through the door and quietly introduced himself as “John Gillespie!” I got to give him a brief shop tour and then polished his signature “bent bell” trumpet, a gold plated Schilke. Before he left, I got a photo of him with my crew. I still have the photo, but since I was holding the camera, I’m not in the shot!
I could go on with so many stories, more than we have time for. But the bottom line is that Houghton Horns was born out of a passion for music and brass playing. It’s about providing unique services and great instruments for the brass playing community. It’s more of a lifestyle than a business. I enjoy working with my hands and making a difference for horn players, but in what other field would someone voluntarily work sixty hours a week?
And ultimately for me, it’s not about making money. It’s about making friends, building relationships, and sharing the joy of music.
