Western Electric 16A Horn

What motivated me to jump into this endeavor was the rarity and high price of original WE 16A horns on E-bay and and other transaction sites. As expected, I have gone through many trials and errors until I reproduced a horn that meets all important features and traits of original horns. And I have shared with the WE horn lovers in South Korea on this year 2013. The replica is made exactly the same as an original and reproduces front stage sound like an original. If you have further interests, please email me at we16ahorn@gmail.com Thank you.

The horn in the back is an original Western Electric 16A horn and the one in the front is the replica I built recently. The sound of the replica is the same as an original 16A like an identical twins.

The three pictures from the top show the process of how the replica horn throat is manufactured. The one at the bottom shows an original throat made of iron. But the replica's is made of brass like that of a trumpet trombone saxophone and other brass instruments called the brass band. The idea is to enhance musicality. The brass is a musical metal. Making an iron throat does not present a technical challenge.

The three pictures from the top shows a double throat for WE 16B and 15B horns. "A" of 16A means a single throat and "B" of 16B and 15B represents a double throat. The upper throat in the third picture is the replica I made and the lower one is an original double throat of Western Electric.

Computerized laser cutting machines and bending machines have been used to produce the steel sheets of replica WE 16A horns.

The above 4 pictures also show the procedure of building replica Western Electric 16A horns. Building metal hones, as anyone who has attempted it would attest, is a very arduous and meticulous process with an 1/25 inch maximum allowable margin of error. 

The above two pictures show horn parts waiting to get into the pre-painting and the final painting process.

The painting method employed is powder coating. The two pictures at the bottom shows an inspection step.

The typical  color of  Western Electric's horns are black. But, one of  16A mania asked

me a different color. The picture above shows how dark gray color looks like on the horn. And the fabric color at the center is black in place of normal white color. Such

variations are up to the end user's need.

The best way of operating a WE 16A horn is to use WE 555 drive as full range without a network. The WE 555 driver goes down to about 80 Hz in the 16A horn. So there is no need to use any woofer or a network. A pair of tweeters with a 1.5 - 2.0uF capacitor is wired to the power amplifier.

The 16A horn is very heavy and is difficult to shift its sitting position. And the sound is so much the better when the horn is lifted up at least 10 inches from the floor. The best way is to suspend it with a steel wire rope from the ceiling. Above two pictures are a movable base. It is very convenient and is strong since it is made with a square steel pipes.

The above four pictures were taken at the process of wooden box packing for exporting to U.S.A.

A set of WE 16A horn shipped to Germany on Jan. 2014.

A set of WE 16A horn shipped to Poland on Feb. 2014