| Schilke Build Time
It takes about 45 hours to produce a Schilke Custom Trumpet. This is because each of the instruments is built to order using parts that must fit perfectly. All the tubing is honed, hand fit and lapped as are the valves and casings. There are no soldering jigs, robotics or prefabricated parts imported from Mexico, China, or Europe. It's all done with care and great skill by the same people that have been building Schilke Trumpets for over twenty years. Once they're put together and ready for final finishing, they are inspected and refined to what has become known as Schilke quality standards by the same person that has done so for over forty years. After plating, the slides are hand-lapped and aligned, the valves are honed and fit, hand-lapped and, finally, the instrument is throughly cleaned in a state-of-the-art ultrasonic bath and de-ionized water rinse.
I think all of these details mean very little without understanding that Schilke never wanted to make a lot of money or a lot of trumpets; what he wanted was to make the best trumpet in the world. History will be the judge of how well he succeeded. |