Ever since picking up a Schilke B6 Bb trumpet back in March or April, I have really enjoyed playing it and I have been reading (Thanks to Jim Donaldson and the Schilke Loyalist website) some of the writings of Renold Schilke regarding his Bb trumpet designs and the great steps he took in trying to make them as perfect as possible - something that I feel every time I play mine.
Anyway, I was perusing an article about nodal patterns in brass instruments that he wrote, and this paragraph (quoted from the Schilke Loyalist site) jumped out at me:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Renold Schilke I know it is hard for people to conceive the idea of changing the pitch of an instrument by only changing the rate of taper one to two thousandths of an inch at exactly the pressure point of the note that you want to affect. On the mouthpipe of my instrument, if you will look carefully through the inside of it, you will see that I have corrected faulty notes in fourteen different places. In some places, the pitch of the note receives almost an eighth of a tone by utilizing less than one thousandth variance in taper over a quarter of an inch length. As stated previously, we can only correct intonation on the note at a particular point. We must find a single pressure point for that note in order to accomplish this. If it goes to a multiple pressure point, too many notes would be affected adversely. Some of the corrections on intonation are clear into the bell area. It is only at the places where we can change it on tapered surfaces that we can make the corrections. On the slides of the instrument, it is impossible to make the necessary corrections. In the bow of the tuning slide it is possible and it is also the reason why, on all my instruments, you will find such a long mouthpipe...longer than anyone else uses. |
The part that I highlighted in italics and bold sounds very much like what Gene Pilczuk did with his leadpipe, only it sounds as if it is all done on the inside of the leadpipe.
Does anyone know if this is close to the same thing, and if it is, is it something that they continue to do now?
It is facinating to me that Renold Schilke went to the lengths that he did while designing, prototyping and testing his trumpets before he would sign off on them and offer them up to the public. I've heard that if you are lucky enough to find one in good shape, the 60s era Schilkes are absolutely amazing trumpets, and if a good deal presents itself, it should be jumped on without hesitation.