To confuse matters, the basset horn is not a horn; its name probably derives from the resemblance of early, curved or angled versions to a horn. The notion that it was invented by a person named Horn appears to be fanciful. Some of the earliest basset horns, dating from the 1760s, bear a maker's stamp claiming they were invented by A. and M. Mayerhofer of Passau, but while this claim has not been discredited, it remains unproved.
Modern basset horns can be divided into three basic types, distinguished primarily by bore size and consequently the mouthpieces with which they are played:
- The small bore basset horn has a bore diameter in the range of 15.5 to 16.0 mm (still somewhat larger than a soprano clarinet bore, though it is often erroneously thought to be the same; even a large bore English clarinet, such as the old B&H 1010 design has a smaller bore of 15.3 mm). It is played with a Bb/A clarinet mouthpiece. Only Selmer (Paris) and Stephen Fox (Canada) currently make this model.
- The medium bore basset horn has a bore diameter in the region of 17.0 mm or slightly less. This is the most common type made by German manufacturers. Since no French-style mouthpiece with an appropriate bore is mass produced, this model requires a matching German basset horn mouthpiece. (This model is not usually recognized in North America, where it is incorrectly confused with the large bore type described below.) Stephen Fox (Canada) currently makes this model also.
- The large bore basset horn, with a bore diameter of about 18.0 mm and played with an alto clarinet mouthpiece, is in constructional terms an alto clarinet pitched in F and with the extra basset notes. The Leblanc basset horns (bores c. 18.0 to 18.2 mm) are of this type
The current Buffet basset horn could be called a hybrid "medium-large bore" model, since it uses an alto clarinet mouthpiece but has a bore diameter around 17.2 mm.
In the 19th century, Felix Mendelssohn wrote two pieces for the basset horn, clarinet and piano (opus 113 and 114). These were later scored for string orchestra. Antonin Dvořák attempted a half-hearted revival, using the instrument in his Czech Suite (1879), but the instrument was largely abandoned until Richard Strauss took it up once more in his operas Elektra (1909), Der Rosenkavalier, and Capriccio, and several later works, including two wind serenades (Happy Workshop and Invalid's Workshop).