Jason and I have a list about 10 miles long of things we want to do with Harrelson Trumpets. It seems to me that we say... "ya we've had that idea" in meetings with Joe & Christine almost daily. We have spent so many years getting organized it can sometimes feel like that is all we ever do. We have developed so many processes! It really is unbelievable. We both felt like this week was a real win for us because we have FINALLY been able to do a few things we've had ideas to do for YEARS! This week... it was finger buttons. Yes, we've had finger buttons for a very long time. But this week we finally had the time to get organized on the VMC and in the epoxy drawers. I have spent nearly the entire week making finger buttons on the VMC and filling epoxy samples for photographs. It feels so good to finally have these projects under our belt. The finger buttons coming off the machine really are pretty amazing. I really have been having fun with this project not just because it feels like these are things we've wanted to do for years, but also because I AM DESIGNING THEM AND BUILDING THEM on the VMC. On my own! Which is a really big deal. It's a game changer for the company overall because up until now Jason has been the only one that could do these things. This frees up more of his time and energy and puts finger button customization into FULL SPEED AHEAD mode. Disclaimer... Jason designed the two amazing finger button sets below. 

​Name this tune! I scrambled it up accidentally when scanning it in... so that should make it more challenging. 

These fun stars below are my first ever finger button design! I think the red ones are my favorite. 

Keep your eyes open for future creative finger button projects! Call or email us for more details and pricing. All of these designs (and a few more secret ones) will be on our website early next week!

It's been a while. I was back in MN for an entire week as of late... and since then just catching up! Some things we've been working on here in Denver. Well, Joe & Christine spent the better part of a few days assembling VGR Insert Boxes. I have been laser cutting the wooden pieces and 3D Printing the inserts for about a month off and on. Joe spent days working the lathe and replenishing our supply of Inserts. We're now set up for the better part of a year I am guessing. The final product is quite impressive and organized! We're very happy with how these turned out.

Jason has been really excited to work on engraving projects. After completing a recent hand carved receiver on a client order... he's seen the value in perfecting his techniques. Expect more amazing hand-work in the coming year(s).

Some of the most beautiful hand work on a Harrelson Trumpet that I have ever seen... except mine I guess... I am biased probably.

Also a friendly reminder... this weekend we're opening up the Shop & Showroom for FREE Shop Tours. We also have a series of classes... some paid... some free. We are doing a special promotion this weekend... if you come to the shop this Saturday and order a Harrelson 5MM Mouthpiece. You will get a FREE Custom ART BODY! That's a value of $80-$150. Call or email for more details: harrelsontrumpets@gmail.com or 303-657-2747 The full schedule is below. Stay tuned for our November Clinics! Nov. 10th & 11th.

Saturday, October 14th
10-11am: Shop Tour 
11-1pm: Intro to Trumpet Momentum $30  w/ 5MM Art Body Promotion* (call for details 303-657-2747)
1pm: Lunch for Trumpet Momentum Participants 
2-3pm: Modular Mouthpiece Seminar
3:30-4:30pm: Shop Tour

Above you see Joe measuring finger buttons coming off the lathe. Assorted Bell Crook & Tuning Slide production in various stages. Jason hand working a horn. Jason on a client consultation. And all those bags full of couplers are for a new all bench air system Jason installed the day before yesterday. And... last but not least... me, below processing trim on the hand lathe.

Well... today we skipped our daily meeting and pretty much plowed full speed ahead through production on all fronts. Christine filled 5MM orders and timed this photo perfectly while on the phone with a customer. That's me below machining finger rings. Joe has been cutting specialty trim all day... just to my left... and Jason has been doing just about 15 minutes of everything a person can do all day while trying to help us and keep his sanity. Oh, and assembling a custom trumpet at the same time. Half an hour ago he paused to help me paint a workbench for our showroom... Harrelson Trumpets... firing on all 4 cylinders! 

I am writing this while cutting finger rings on the Hurco. Jason is busy building a custom trumpet. He's been finishing the tuning slide and bell crook while prepping for assembly. The two trumpets in the gallery below went out today. 

Here's my office for the day... only 36 more to go until I am done cutting finger rings.

If you haven't heard... we're hosting clinics and shop tours in October and November... more information below:

Friday, October 13th
4-5pm: Shop Tour w/ Mouthpiece Intro 
5-6pm: Break
6-8pm: Intro to 3D Printing  Carbon Fiber & Fiberglass (Ultamaker & Markforged) $30

Saturday, October 14th
10-11am: Shop Tour 
11-1pm: Intro to Trumpet Momentum $30
1pm: Lunch for Trumpet Momentum Participants 
2-3pm: Modular Mouthpiece Seminar
3:30-4:30pm: Shop Tour

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Friday, November 10th
4-5pm: Shop Tour w/ Mouthpiece Intro 
5-6pm: Break
6-8pm: Intro to CNC Machining $30

Saturday, November 11th
10-11am: Shop Tour 
11-1pm: Intro to Trumpet Momentum $30
1pm: Lunch for Trumpet Momentum Participants 
2-3pm: Modular Mouthpiece Seminar
3:30-4:30pm: Shop Tour

Jason working on a tuning slide... and Christine filling 5MM orders. 
​More updates tomorrow... now back to the CNC.

Things keep moving right along here... Jason has been finishing custom builds and Christine (as seen above) has been doing the finishing work. This trumpet went out to plating this morning. Joe & Christine have also been focused on building and scanning mouthpieces. 

​Check out this crazy material for making Custom ART Mouthpieces. You could get lost in it!

​I spent a few hours on the computer today designing custom mouthpieces and receivers. You may not know... that when you send us your signature... we have to retrace it in RHINO and then post the files to the machine... it's quite the process... 

Jason finishing a tuning slide for a custom build he's assembling today... 

Above is a client's custom horn that went out late last week. We're really having fun with all of the new Acoustic Armour finishes we're offering. 

​Jason doing a facebook live event on the 5MM Mouthpiece... if you're not our facebook friend... then you can still catch most of our videos on youtube.

​Some of the CNC Clinic participants from Sunday

It was a busy weekend here at Harrelson Trumpets. We hosted Shop Tours & Clinics Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There were intro classes to the 5MM Mouthpiece System and this time around we even held a CNC Machining class as well. Participants walked away with a custom Colorado/Harrelson key fob and a head full of information about what goes into design, coding, setup and execution of CNC programs. Jason and I have been doing our best to complete as much of the showroom as possible before each of our open houses. This time was no different. I spent the better part of 2 days installing ceiling tiles and cleaning the showroom. Jason has been completing designs for the showroom displays. We're getting closer every day... but there is still so much to do. 

​Joe and Christine scanning mouthpieces. They seem to be having a great time... maybe it's more fun than I thought it was. 

The VP of Fusion360 toured the shop last week as well... 

_

Joe & Christine have been busy filling orders and shipping them out around the world. 

_

Here we have two of the prototype mouthpiece bodies that are up in our online store as of today... and a small sampling of the programming that goes in to our mouthpiece scans for machining. 

Thanks again to everyone that came out this weekend. We're looking forward to having the showroom in even better shape for the next clinics happening October 13th&14th and November 10th & 11th. Stay tuned for more fun clinics on things like CNC & 3D Printing.

Well... it's been a few days... and my lists about what everyone has been working on look kinda crazy. Where to start? Joe has been plowing through nuts on the lathe. I don't know the total number of nuts produced in this run because I neglected to ask him... but it was A LOT... and I know he's ready to move on to other things. While on this project he's also been doing email, phone and shipping with Christine. 

Jason helped do program and set up the nuts on the machine... as well as running it while Joe is busy on other projects. Earlier this week Jason was turning some custom Art Series 5MM Mouthpiece Bodies... which turned out just beautifully... I think I mentioned it here once already... but just came across a few other photos so I thought I would add them here as well. Two of these have already sold and I have been so busy that they aren't even up on our website yet. 

Jason never does one thing at a time... because he gets pulled in a ton of directions... so he's also been building custom horns... working on the laser to create the remainder of our showroom displays and helping me set up some new equipment in the office and showroom. Today we had a couple of guys stop by from FUSION360 and tour the shop... so he was meeting with them as well. 

Looks like I don't have many photos of Christine from the last few days... but she's been putting together 5MM orders to ship out. Packing and shipping trim and other trumpet orders as well as her regular customer service. We are really excited to see that there are less than 20 custom 5MM Mouthpieces left waiting on parts either to be machined or that are out at plating. I spent the better part of yesterday restocking parts and it's possible some of these will fill orders as well. Things are really coming together for the 5MM system and the phones are busy almost constantly. I have also been running the laser to cut displays. Setting inlays and what else I can't really say... but whatever that has been it sure has been keeping me busy. I have two Harrelson Trumpets to list on our website... I am hoping I can do that yet tonight before I leave... and those custom 5MM Mouthpiece Bodies as well... Excited to get those out there! 

Each of these parts have tiny numbers on them... and go in a special spot in the mouthpiece stock cabinet... turns out my eyes aren't exactly what they used to be. And... these too... 

This is a little teaser for the next round of custom Art Series 5MM Mouthpiece Bodies... stay tuned! 

Here's Jason working hard to get the best light to photograph a silver horn. These are tricky!

Last but not least... since I am on the topic of mouthpiece nuts... I wanted to share a link with a little bit of information on how to get the perfect seamless fit between your Harrelson 5MM Mouthpiece and trumpet receiver. I will be adding more photos here in the coming days... but in case you weren't sure about how to do it... this might be helpful to you. http://www.whyharrelson.com/nut-sizes.html Also... Joe and Christine are always ready to help over the phone 303-657-2747

Until next time... from all of us here at Harrelson Trumpets working hard to deliver you the finest in instrument technology... have a great weekend! 

PS. The laser cutter and the 3D printers don't need to sleep! We're hoping to train them to do some of the work around here! 

I have been out of town visiting my family and friends in MN for a few days... but I flew back to Denver today. I was hoping for an awesome view of the eclipse from the airplane... but mostly it was just like any other flight... plus a 4 year old next to me that likes to kick strangers... but I am very happy to be back! Everyone has been hard at work while I was away. Joe worked Saturday and met with a trumpet player that was in town playing at Red Rocks and wanted to stop by the shop and try out mouthpieces. Jason's been working on custom horn builds... but also somehow finding time to cut custom art mouthpiece bodies. He and I poured blanks for turning a few months ago... and they're finally "taking shape" and looking REALLLLLLLLLLLLLLY AWESOME! But don't take my word for it... just look at some of these! 

Truth be told I didn't really ask Christine what she's been doing since I left ... but I do know that she's probably been filling 5MM orders and doing client service and shipping... other than that... I would guess finishing trumpets... but I will have more information tomorrow. 
It's 8:45pm and I am still here at the shop... it's only fair since I got here around 2pm and everyone else has been working hard these last few days while I was away. I stayed late to finish two trumpets that came back from plating and also finish cutting displays on the laser for finger buttons and the new custom art mouthpiece bodies. 

I think this is my favorite mouthpiece body... 

Or maybe this one... 

Some other cool bodies from the week... 

And... my anti-climactic eclipse experience on my flight earlier today... 

Yesterday... despite sticking around the shop until 7:30... I didn't have time to update the newsfeed. As you can see Joe & Christine shipped out a lot of orders yesterday afternoon! 

Jason took delivery on a Picza 3D Laser scanner from Roland... Zander is seen here helping to unpack the very large and comfy box. 

Joe was on the phone a LOT yesterday... it seemed to be ringing off the hook. 

I did final assembly on this horn for a couple of hours yesterday... luckily I have several books on tape I am in the middle of... since this room doesn't have windows.  We are catching up on a ton of work this week... because it's the first week back to school our constant stream of visitors is slowing down just enough for us to complete all the little things that go undone at times. We are all looking forward to a very productive and exciting fall here at Harrelson Trumpets!

​

Jason spent the day working on an ART Horn bell crook & tuning slide. There were some machining issues and he had to trouble shoot for most of the day. As is often the case... something we thought would take just a couple of hours took the better part of the day. He also did some work on the laser to get the finger button displays rolling. I have been turning out a lot of trim parts and we want to properly display them in the showroom. ​

I have spent most of the day working on inlays and organizing the finishing room where I spend a lot of time doing the final prep on horns before they ship out. As you can see Zander is still here... he had to practice outside for a bit while Joe returned some phone calls. 

If you haven't heard yet... Jason and Harrelson Trumpets were featured in the latest Harvey Tool BLOG... that you can check out here: ​http://www.harveyperformance.com/in-the-loupe/harrelson-trumpets/

Christine has been hard at work finishing trumpets as they come off of Jason's bench. She's also been filling orders... answering phone calls and processing orders. Here's a quick shot of Zander... who's really excited to play his lesson tonight... on his new Harrelson 5MM Mouthpiece. Until tomorrow!

I spent most of my day so far creating the engraving files and cutting custom mouthpiece bodies w/ Art on the Hurco. I've also been doing email and chat... and general office Monday chores. I will be updating some client order forms and then restocking mouthpiece parts for the rest of the day... possibly some more art work as well before the day is over.

Jason has been working on custom Art for a Summit Art model horn. He's been doing the program and design of the intricate bell crook and tuning slide. This is another horn headed to New Orleans. 

Christine has been doing emails, order processing, shipping and finishing work on a trumpet.

Joe has been shipping, working with an unexpected shop visitor and will be assembling mouthpiece orders to ship out. We have a plating order that came back and I will probably be helping to sort that shipment as well.

Some of the design work I've been doing today. 

Christine working hard on finishing a horn. Below... Jason teaching Zander about inventions... 

We've all been working in hyper speed this week. Joe spent the day doing emails, shipments and building mouthpieces. Christine was answering phones and finishing trumpets. Jason completed two trumpets and did a run of VGR insert box designs on the laser. I engraved 5MM Mouthpieces and did final assembly on two trumpets. I also spent some time doing custom mouthpiece designs for client orders in Rhino. It's Saturday... and Jason, Christine and I are all here... we have a client visiting from Minnesota... and I want to finish the custom mouthpiece designs I started yesterday. It's a beautiful Saturday in Colorado... and I think we all have tomorrow off! 

Josh Cameron in the showroom all the way from Minnesota!

Yesterday Zander had a trumpet lesson with Jason and one with Joe... and I taught him some tricks on piano... everyone is having fun at the shop with him around.

Today went by fast. We had 2 scheduled visitors today. Local guys that were coming to swap out mouthpiece parts on their 5MM orders. We also had a family stop in unexpectedly from Minnesota. That was a lot of fun as well. Zander is still here and he's been helping out a lot and teaching us a lot about things kids know these days. Around the shop here's what's been going on. 

This morning I answered emails and did some basic office duty stuff. Then I did the final clean up and assembly on a custom trumpet build that Christine finished off yesterday. Did some photographs of that... and chatted with our MN visitors. Then I spent a couple of hours engraving mouthpiece bodies. 

Joe finished up making mouthpiece bodies this morning. Other than that he's been doing shipping and building mouthpieces for clients. 

Jason completed a custom horn order this morning and has been working on another today as well. He's moving on to engraving mouthpiece throats with the laser. He will need to put in an order for brass stock before he goes home. We're hoping to get another impromptu trumpet lesson in before we all head home. 

Christine completed finishing work on a custom horn today and has been working on another. When she hasn't had her hands in gloves for finishing... she's been helping all of our visitors try out horns and fit them for mouthpieces. 

One of our surprise visitors today all the way from Minnesota!

My screen on the CNC for mouthpiece engraving and Jason at the lathe cutting a few specialty bodies. 

Sometimes it seems like it takes us until Wednesday to catch our breath here. Guess who is here visiting for a while? Jason's nephew Zander (helping out above) from Billings, MT. He's getting in the groove here at Harrelson Trumpets and helping us stay on task. 

Joe finished up VMTs on the lathe this morning and switched tooling back over to Mouthpiece Bodies.  The tomorrow the lathe will be set back up for custom mouthpiece bodies. Then a run of Pollard Water Keys. The lathe has been in almost constant motion... which is how we like it.

Christine has been doing finishing work on custom trumpet builds. Once those are hand finished... I will be doing final assembly. 

Jason is building said horns... and I have been handling residual emails and random tasks that were lagging behind in my absence. Tomorrow I will be finishing horns and designing the CAD programming for a number of custom engraving projects that have been waiting for me. What else have I been forgetting? We had two visitors yesterday... and it was quite the full house. In a good way. John Reid was in town trying out mouthpieces. John tours with KC and the Sunshine Band and has a lot of note not in the staff... if you know what I mean! 

Joe's pretty happy he switched the tooling and set up the machine to cut bodies this morning without having to ask a single question... and without breaking any tools. And... below... you can see both Oscar... and John Reid's daughter were pretty happy to play with Zander yesterday. Full house!

So... I just returned home from a very watery visit to New Orleans for the Satchmo Summerfest. I will be doing a separate blog on that later today or early tomorrow.... just trying to get my bearings here. But... I wanted to do an update on the work that's been going on here at Harrelson Trumpets while I was away. We've had a very busy summer... which has included an ever increasing number of shop visits. This week we had several... but the one I missed was Joe and Kendra on Friday. They were in town to pick up Kendra's new custom Summit Trumpet. 

Everyone is hard at work... for you, our clients. This has been the busiest Summer we've ever had... and it's about to go crazy around here. September to January is consistently strong at Harrelson Trumpets... we're all looking forward to an exciting Fall!

Ok... that's all for now... I am going to get my thoughts and photographs organized for my recount of New Orleans and Satchmo Summerfest 2017. It feels good to be back!

Thank you to everyone that came out over the weekend for our Clinics and Shop Tours! We will be announcing our classes and shop tours for the remainder of the year tomorrow. So stay tuned. Well, it's a Monday... and it really feels like a Monday... we're very busy today. Christine is working on assisting Jason with a custom horn... working the tuning slide & bell crook. When not working on that... she's been filling orders and answering phones. Joe is stationed at the lathe... working on proofing 5MM body files. Jason has been working on two custom built trumpets... and I have been helping him with design work for engraving. Here are some highlight photos from today and this weekend. I have to get all of my notes in order and pack... I head to New Orleans early Wednesday morning! I can't wait!

Guess what? Making the most customized trumpets, mouthpieces and small parts is a LOT of work and takes time.  Sometimes when I talk to everyone in our meeting... it feels like they've been working on the same thing all week long... and sometimes they have. Joe is finally finishing up mouthpiece throats today and moving on to mouthpiece bodies. He is probably more excited about that than any of you out there waiting on a mouthpiece body... because he's been standing in front of that machine for hours every day for what seems like a really long time. Christine is really excited to be filling orders with some of the new throats from the last couple of days and prepping those to ship. We're having a series of shop tours and clinics this weekend... so we'll be hosting visitors and working all weekend during the slower hours. If there are any slower hours. What else??? Jason's been working on custom horn builds all week... and was very excited to get his new software today. If you don't know...software is very expensive! We've been saving up for this particular software for YEARS. Yes, for YEARS. We're hoping this will make his life easier... and keep the hair on his head into his 50s. We have a crew of guys here today doing a shop tour with Jason and attending the 5MM Intro Mouthpiece Clinic. It's fun because everyone is NEW. And we really like it when we have a chance to introduce people that have never heard of us to our products and our showroom. If you don't know about the events this weekend... you can find out more here: www.whyharrelson.com/clinics--tours.html

Jason looks kinda happy about the new software... 

What else... I did the final assembly on another demo horn for the showroom today... which will be nice to have on hand for our visitors this weekend... our horns are all custom built and so it's rare we have many in stock as demos in the showroom unless they come to us on trade for a new build. We're trying to bulk up our inventory ... but it's tough when we're trying to catch up on order at the same time. It's not a bad problem to have... and yes... we hear that almost daily.

There's Joe... juggling phone calls... he took like 3 calls at once... and then when he finally got off the phone he sighed and said... "there were two on call waiting that I missed completely"... so if you are trying to call... and you don't get us the first time around... we're probably on the line with another client... try us again... or send an email our way... harrelsontrumpets@gmail.com

I hope to see some of you at the festivities this weekend! I head to New Orleans for Satchmo Summerfest on Wednesday next week... time flies!

So... as you probably noticed... I haven't done an update in a while. I was out of town... and the last few times I've sat down to do an update something else has come up. I think I have finally perfected a method for transferring photos from my cell phone to our work pc. Which... sounds pretty easy... unless you try to do it with conflicting wifi and limited cell service. Long story short... here's what we've been doing for a few days. 

Jason has been working hard on a custom client order the last few days. This order required him to alter some programming and cut all new parts. This build also features some inlaid coins in the tuning slide and bell crook... which I think are going to look really smart once it's done. Should be ready for Christine to clean up by later today or tomorrow. 

Jason and I put the Ultimaker to work starting prototyping bell designs... more information on that to come. Some of the first Dichroic finger buttons went out for a custom order late last week (see the awesome blue stones above). Joe has been working on throats pretty nonstop. He does take breaks every now and then to answer a 5MM question or to fill an order that comes in. The phones have been ringing off the hook and Chrstine no sooner hangs up with one client ... before the phone rings again. It's never dull around here. All yesterday she packed and shipped orders... answered phones... and did finishing work on the demo horn for the showroom which will be on hand for our open house/clinics this weekend. Jason, as I said has been programming a custom build and machining parts for that. Including the custom tuning slide. Other than that he's been helping me with custom engraving projects for orders... and helping Joe troubleshoot issues on the lathe. We also had client and friend Brian Graber in yesterday from New Orleans along with his wife Karin. After they left Joe said to Jason and I... wow what friendly, warm and awesome people... we both said... well... of course... they're from New Orleans. 

Our attentions are full speed ahead on finishing 5MM Mouthpiece machining, custom trumpet builds... and hosting our guests. This week we've had one or more visitors every single day... and this weekend we have a full schedule of clinics and shop tours. If you haven't signed up for your spot yet... this is where to do it. Hope to see you there! 

www.whyharrelson.com/clinics--tours.html

Time flies... when you're... busy! We don't have much time to sit around thinking about what comes next... most things happen in fast forward here. Innovation is a constant... and we like it that way. Yesterday Jason and I took delivery on a new Ultimaker 3D Printer. We didn't waste any time setting it up and doing our first test prints. We've had designs for several small parts and tools for many months now... and by the end of day yesterday they were already coming off the new printer. More information on that coming soon.
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The focus for the coming days... finishing as much as possible in the way of displays and other touches on the Showroom in time for our Clinics next weekend. Getting the 3D Printer up and running regularly. Finish packaging for shim kits etc. Cut wooden boxes on the laser... oh... and build trumpets, mouthpieces and trim. 

Jason and I did some work with inlays this morning as well. Hoping to make major progress in the coming days.

Some things we've all been working on this week... 

Joe

Christine

Jason

Me