[Trombone-l] Original Schilke Trombone

[George Butler]

Where's the "Like" button?  :-)

On Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 6:18 AM, Peter via Trombone-l <
trombone-l at trombonelist.org> wrote:

> Hello Listers -
>
> Sometime back in the late 70s, Renn Schilke started thinking about
> trombones.  To make a long story short (and to be honest, I don’t know that
> much about the story!), he built a handful of custom trombones.  The first
> two were built for Gene Watt of the Canadian Brass, who came to Toledo in
> the Fall of 1979 for a concert.  As I was playing in the Toledo Symphony at
> the time, I went went to the concert and afterwards introduced myself to
> Gene.  Gene, being the consummate salesperson, insisted that I play his
> new, gold-plated custom-made Schilke trombone.  I did and thought it was a
> dream of an instrument and decided that I needed to have one.  The next
> day, I called Schilke and talked to Kerry Griffith, and arranged for them
> to put one together for me.  It came to me with the serial number “003” - I
> guess he had intended to make a bunch of them, but in the end, I think he
> finally produced five or six, and I believe Frank Crisafulli had at least
> one of them.  I don’t know any of this for certain and maybe there are
> others who know something of the history here.
>
> The trombone is a large bore straight tenor - no f-attachment, and because
> Renn would never put lacquer on anything, it is silver plated. It is still
> in very good, if not excellent condition.  I’ve played this instrument on
> and off over the years.  Because its a bit of a lighter instrument, I did
> not use it much in the orchestra, preferring the sound of my Bach 42
> there.  But it was great for solo performances, in the brass quintet and
> for small chamber orchestras.  I’ve also used it when playing second
> trombone for Mozart & Beethoven masses.  Given that I’m no longer playing
> and it is something of a collector’s item, I’m thinking that I should try
> to find it a good home.
>
> So I’m curious to know if there is any interest out there for it?  If so,
> please let me know off-list and we can discuss it further.  If anyone knows
> more of the history of Schilke’s early foray into trombone production
> around this time, I’d enjoy hearing it and perhaps others in the list would
> be interested as well.
>
> Thanks very much!
>
> Peter Pettit
> PCPettit at gmail.com
>
>
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