Westwind English Horn Shaper Tips

Westwind offers a range of proven shapes that are precision reproductions of classic shapes, as well as specific replicas of shaper tips used by renowned Oboists, English Horn players, and teachers in the industry. Westwind shaper tips are better than the originals too, because they're manufactured using the finest modern machining techniques including highly accurate, computer-driven production methods. In short, Westwind offers the best shapes made better.

Brannen

This classic English Horn shaper tip is a reproduction of the popular tips made by Brannen in the 1950’s. Westwind sampled over a half dozen original tips and then averaged the results to make sure they were being faithful to the original specifications.

Giacobassi

When Julie Giacobassi came to Westwind, her goal was simple, to make additional copies of her favorite shaper tip. She found it in the early 1970's while working with Richard White, the English Horn player in the National Symphony Orchestra. Richard had spent an afternoon browsing through a jumbled box of English Horn shaper tips at the venerable Ponte Music Company. Charles Ponte, the founder, had been an English Horn player himself at Radio City Music Hall. Richard handed her a tip and told her to give it a try. "It looks like a good one," he said...and indeed it was! This tip faithfully reproduces that original tip. It is sold by Westwind with Julie’s permission.

Minsker-Lickman

This English Horn shaper tip is truly a rare gem. It's a precise duplicate of the hand-made tip originally owned by John Minsker, who played English Horn alongside legendary Oboist Marcel Tabuteau in the Philadelphia Orchestra for 18 years between 1936 and 1954.

This shape has been handed down through the generations. Stephen Lickman inherited the original tip from one of Minsker's students, Norman Wells, and used it for 20 years with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Lickman's successor in Dallas, David Matthews, has been using it now for over 15 years.

If the name Lickman sounds familiar to you, it's no accident. Stephen Lickman developed the enormously popular Lickman English Horn bocals used by many players today. And, for a brief time during the 1980's, he sold a shaper tip known simply as the "Lickman" tip, which was an earlier attempt to duplicate this same shape.

Encouraged by improvements made in measuring and machining technology since that time, Stephen collaborated with Westwind and David Matthews to painstakingly reproduce this shape and deliver a tip much more accurate and durable than the last generation. This tip has a lifetime warranty.

All shapers and shaper tips have a 30-day trial period. Compare several, choose one, and send back the rest for a full refund minus shipping. Returns after the 30-day trial period will be subject to a 10% restocking fee in addition to the cost of shipping, but must be returned in like new to new physical condition.