Special order instruments, crooks, and customization services
I am always interested to take on new challenges and to collaborate with performers in developing new instruments after historical models to suit their performing needs. If there is an instrument in a museum which has captured your fancy, a specific project for which a special instrument is required, or an occasion where you need your existing instrument to work differently (other pitch, key, etc.), I'm happy to consult with you to develop a suitable solution.
Thanks to David Hancox for the fountain image;
Brassosaurus image via the Austin Symphony Orchestra's Facebook page.
Renaissance slide trumpet after iconography from Chartres Cathedral
Developed at the request of the Instrumentarium de Chartres and trombonist Sandie Griot, this instrument features a bell based on the Billingsgate trumpet, and geometry based on the two trumpets depicted in carvings in the Cathedral of Chartres, France. The S-shaped wrap also reflects a broad range of other fifteenth-century iconography, and may be more typical of fifteenth-century slide trumpets than the more frequently chosen design based on the famous Memling angel musicians tryptich.
When not in use, this trumpet will be on display beginning in 2017 in the room devoted to musical instruments at the Museum of Chartres Cathedral.
Customization
Customization of existing instruments is also possible - for example, conversion of an English G-bass trombone to play in A=440/430 rather than the original A=452, or (reversibly) modifying the upper section of a Baroque bass trombone in F at A=440 to allow it to be exchanged with new, shorter crooks for F at A=466, or even G at A=440 and 466.
Fitted crooks
I also offer custom-fitted crooks for existing instruments; I have fitted semitone bits and whole-tone crooks to tenor and bass trombones, as well as flatt trumpets and 19th-century German valved brasses, and can fabricate replacement tuning slides for alternate pitches as well.