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CNC WEST October/November 2016 23
A really inefficient instrument will vibrate all over so he
set out to build his own horn and reverse that condition.
He bought a cheap $20 trumpet at a pawnshop and took it
all apart. “When I put it back together I created four tubes
where there would normally be only two,” explains Jason. “I
did that so there would be more wall thickness, preserving
more energy in the standing wave. I had no way of making
thicker tubing at the time, I didn’t have a lathe, or even knew
what a lathe was so I just added tubes inside the other ones.”
He practiced “The Carnival of Venice” on the $20 trumpet
over and over. It was the hardest song for him to play and
once he had it down he recorded himself playing it. He played
his modified version and it was drastically better. He knew
it was, but without sophisticated recording equipment and
a spectrum analyzer he questioned if it really was better.
“I knew I was biased so I went back to the pawnshop and
bought the same $20 horn again so I could play them back
to back. It was so much better that my playing became that
much better too.”
Jason used his trumpet business as the model for the
school’s entrepreneurship program, but in 2001 he quit ev-
erything to focus on making Harrelson Trumpets. From the
time he left college Jason had been everything from a mu-
sic teacher to a police officer and made a living touring with
different bands. “I had so many people asking me to modify
their trumpets, or rebuild a mouthpiece that it consumed all
my free time,” explains Jason. “So I made the leap to trumpet
manufacturer and it was a huge risk for me. I was poor for a
long time, but I’m really glad I did. In the beginning every-
thing was fabricated the traditional way by hand, but Jason’s
vision included technology and efficient manufacturing pro-
cesses. “CNC gave me the ability to solve problems and be
Every part is hand finished at Harrelson Trumpets and each horn is completely custom.
They have 10,000 part numbers for a trumpet that needs just over 100 parts to
complete. Kate Hannington (top left) assembles the 6 piece modular mouthpiece.
There are thousands of combinations available in the mouthpiece alone to customize
sound and fit. Kelly Scollin (top right) does the final finish and assembly on every horn.
That process takes almost two full days. Christine Palmer (middle right) concentrates
her efforts on finish and assembly. The final step in owning a Harrelson Trumpet is
documentation and fitting. Jennifer Sandquist (lower right) takes photos of each horn
then works with each musician at pickup to ensure their Harrelson Trumpet fits and
plays as desired.