[Trombone-l] Laskey goes global

[Craig Parmerlee]

It is the nature of the universe that the best instruments come from 
individuals that have a singular passion.  And when those people move 
on, few instrument makers have achieved the level of stability and scale 
to carry on without them.  There are loads of examples from Vincent Bach 
to Gary Greenhoe.  I see that Hirsbrunner has shut down.  it happens.

The outcomes are varied.  Shires remained with the company but ownership 
went with Eastman. Holton, Benge and others continued to produce 
more-or-less as cash cows.  Bach was bigger and remained a market force 
under Selmer. Greenhoe remains a live brand with high quality and 
appeal, but under the direction of Schilke.

Reading between the lines (and this is total speculation on my part, but 
based on observing many such transitions,) I'd say that Zig's family 
decided operating the factory wasn't what they wanted to do. In recent 
years, most of Kanstul's business has been from marching brass 
(including bugles).  As most of these are sold to schools, price is more 
important than artist-level quality.  There are plenty of Chinese plants 
that can build the marching brass and stamp the Kanstul logo on them.

Kanstul also produced a multitude of artist-level instruments.  I 
suspect this was more of Zig's later-life pleasure as he seemed to be in 
the middle of all of those developments.  If Kanstul sold tooling to 
BAC, my guess is it was the tooling for the artist-level instruments and 
Mike will pick and choose which of these pieces to use as he expands the 
BAC offerings.  It could be a win for everybody.  The Kanstul family 
could find it a lot easier to make money branding stencil horns and BAC 
might continue and enhance some of the nicer Kanstul designs.


On 6/14/2019 9:49 PM, Luke Aaron wrote:
> There is a very extensive thread regarding Kanstul's situation on the 
> Trumpet Herald forums. A lot of it is speculation, but there are a few 
> comments from people that would be expected to know a bit about what's 
> going on.
>
> It is interesting to note that prominent forum member Flip Oakes 
> hasn't chimed in yet, as his horns were built by Kanstul (and designed 
> around a Kanstul valve block).
>
> I've been eyeing off a Kanstul flugel and a Wild Thing trumpet for a 
> while. Might be the time?


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