Sorry for missing a day... but I have been traveling. Yesterday was very busy at the shop. We have all been pushing to get a few client orders out the door this week. I have spent most of my week in the finishing room cleaning, lapping and assembling horns that came back from plating or that were sprayed with a beautiful coat of Acoustic Armour in house. Each of these orders is different and gorgeous. It has been a lot of fun watching them come together and finally head out the door. I believe there are three going to Detroit... two to one client and one to another, one to Oklahoma, one went to New York City earlier this week and yet another is headed to New Orleans.
 
Joe is working tirelessly on cutting mouthpiece throats... trying hard to finish as many as possible in this production run before he heads out of town for the 4th of July Holiday. Christine is working with a walk in client this morning as well as fielding phone calls and emails. She will be filling even more 5MM Mouthpiece orders as the day goes on. She and Jason will be working all week next week (save maybe the 4th of July) on completing trumpet orders. I have the week off! WOOOHOO and I am headed to Northern MN with my family... and I can't wait. 

I forgot to mention yesterday that we had visitors in the shop all the way from Des Moines IOWA! They worked with Christine to select a custom 5MM Mouthpiece and a Gap Kit. We have a lot of visitors scheduled for this summer and we're hosting an open house the last weekend of July. Click here to Register: ​http://www.whyharrelson.com/harrelson-open-house--clinics.html

That's Oscar doing what he does best... 

And... these are our visitors from IOWA!

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Yes it really does take days and many many man and machine hours to produce parts. Throats are the focus this week and we're going full speed ahead! Joe is manning the CNC again today and all of his focus is on that. Christine has been splitting her time between engraving throats, answering phone calls, shipping, emails and filling 5MM Mouthpiece orders that can be completed now that the throats are available for them. I have been working on final assembly again today. I completed another 24K Gold horn this afternoon and Jason just did the final inspection. Jason is finishing up the displays for the showroom and they look amazing. We just had our daily meeting and we're all really impressed. We are all trying to accomplish as much as possible before the upcoming holiday. We have visitors again tomorrow... and at least 2 horns will ship out. Sounds like Joe & Christine will have about 20 more mouthpiece orders completed before all is said and done as well. 

Just wanted to let everyone know we do have a Harrelson Trumpets YOUTUBE CHANNEL! You should definitely binge watch that over the holiday break if you're interested in Harrelson Trumpets, our shop and the process of trumpet manufacturing in general. 

Happy June 27th! It's another beautiful day in Denver and we're all very busy here at Harrelson Trumpets!

Jason is on day 2 of designing and assembling displays for the showroom on the laser. They're coming out nicely... and we're excited to finally have a way to showcase our various accessories on the walls of the new showroom in an organized fashion. I have heard Jason say more than a few times over the last couple of days... "It's amazing how quickly you can design and cut things on the laser"... when you're used to editing endless lines of code and loading it onto a machine to cut out of metal... this method can seem exponentially more rapid. Hoping to be moving on to spraying Acoustic Armour and then onto horn builds as soon as this project is completed.

Joe is still working hard at tackling the 5MM Mouthpiece throats. There are pages upon pages of throats to cut... and as Joe says.... it can make anyone feel cross-eyed after too long. We're plowing through our inventory and current orders for throats and getting as many done as possible before the 4th of July Holiday.

Christine packed up a trumpet that I finished yesterday... and various other small parts orders. Then she moved on to organizing throats and filling 5MM orders with the new throats Joe is finishing up. So far we've shipped around 20 mouthpieces with this run of throats. Joe & Christine estimate that by the time they're finished with this parts run... they will have shipped a total of 50 custom mouthpiece orders with these new parts. When she isn't doing those things... Christine is answering phone calls and emails today so Joe can concentrate on the CNC. 

I am still cleaning and assembling plated and Acoustic Armour horns for delivery. Here you see Jason helping me mask off a horn before lapping the valves and slides. These can take the better part of a day to complete. It's slow going... but can be relaxing... I finished the silver horn today and we'll be setting the inlays and doing a black backfill on the art in the tuning slide either later today or tomorrow morning so we can deliver that to the lucky owner! I have also been organizing our inlays and trim orders. Hoping to set all of the paua you see on the left in finger button tops tomorrow to add to the new showroom displays Jason is creating. The photo top middle is shot from the finishing room. We also had visitors in the shop today all the way from New York. Thanks again for touring the shop! If you'd like to tour the Showroom and the Trumpet Shop please give us a call to make an appointment. We're also having an open house at the end of July! 303-657-2747 for more information. 

And, last... but not least... our visitors from this morning! See you all back here tomorrow. If you have specific requests for this News Feed... you can contact me directly at [email protected] thanks and have a great night!

Welcome to your daily update! So... I have spent most of my day in the finishing room... so we'll start there. I have been doing final assembly on horns that were treated with Acoustic Armour last week. It's been a lot of fun! It's always so rewarding to see horns really come together. For the first time in the history of me working here at Harrelson Trumpets... I injured myself lapping a tuning slide. Blood, sweat and tears... that's what we're all about... just kidding. Two of these should go out tomorrow morning. One to New York and one to New Orleans! The silver and gold horns I just unpacked and sorted slides. Started work on the silver horn this afternoon and that should be ready to ship tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday morning. And the same with the gold horn if I can get through them both by early tomorrow afternoon. I have some inlays to set... but won't be getting to those until I finish these horns... hopefully by tomorrow afternoon.

Joe is still plugging away on the mouthpiece throats... and Christine has a list so long... I told her today I was going to try to find her bigger post it notes... the phone has been ringing off the hook all day. She literally sets the phone in the cradle and it rings before it seats. She also worked on processing orders and shipping things today before noon. Now she's engraving mouthpiece throats. 

Jason is working hard on designing and prototyping our showroom displays for mouthpieces and trim. These are really coming together... and Jason really has a knack for design and prototyping... not just on trumpets... on all things. I hope I will have some photos for you tomorrow of these on the walls! He's working until late tonight and hopes to have all of his designs laser cut before he leaves. 

We're in crunch time... trying to complete as many things as possible before the 4th of July Holiday. We have shop visitors on both Tuesday and Thursday this week as well. Both are being fit for mouthpieces. We have a steady flow of visitors... not just during open houses. This summer we will be open Saturdays from 10-3. If you'd like to stop by... please give us a call and make an appointment so we're sure to be able organize our production schedule to give you the attention we want. Don't forget... we have shop tours and open houses at the end of July! Please register if you plan to attend. 

See you back here tomorrow!

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Hello out there! We've been really busy here in the shop... which is nothing new... but I've finally had some time to pay attention to little details that have been neglected here and there. Jason and I are working together to simplify the website once again... and in doing so... also update things that have been left behind. This News Feed is one of them! I am going to make it a personal goal to update this every day with photos and a short little bit about what we're working on. Hopefully you'll check back often and feel like you really have an idea what we spend our time doing each week. 

So, we had a team meeting today, like we do every day... and this is what we're all working on today.

Joe (pictured top left) is working on the Lathe Machining 5MM Modular Mouthpiece Throats. So far he's devoted a total of 68 machine hours to this portion of mouthpiece production... and yes, that's on this parts run alone. We're machining a total of 125 varieties of throat sizes in this run... and if you do the math that's about 1200 individual pieces. 

Christine (pictured lower right) is hand engraving sizes on all of those throat parts. We're hoping to invest in a laser engraver soon to take this step out of the process. And... as you can see, she is also answering phone calls and assisting clients with their orders and questions while she's engraving. 

Jason has been devoting today to redesigning a system we have for displays in our showroom and cutting them on the laser. We are having 2 open houses this summer... and we're hoping to put all of the finishing touches on our showroom before the first one in July. He spent the last few days spraying Acoustic Armour on a few clients custom built horns... pictured top right. We're really excited about this new finish and will be releasing other colors in the coming months. 

Jen (that's me and I am not in any of the pictures... haha... I take them so I don't have to be in them) ... I am working on this News Feed. I am also working on coordinating with Satchmo Summerfest in New Orleans. Every year we build a custom Satchmo Trumpet and donate the proceeds of that custom instrument to the festival. If you don't know about it you should really find out more about it! It's a completely FREE Festival in New Orleans every August... and it's devoted to Louis Armstrong, his music and his legacy. Check it out: http://fqfi.org/satchmo This year... we were going to try to do a raffle for the trumpet... but the logistics of this ended up being more than we could figure out in limited amounts of time. So... this year we're sponsoring a musician's performance instead. Sounds like we'll be sponsoring Kermit Ruffins. (A client of ours) Personal bragging side note... his latest album features one of our horns on the cover... (one he owns) and I took the picture! See below... you can order it here: https://www.basinstreetrecords.com/artists/kermit-ruffins/ I also just booked my travel for my trip to the festival. I will be meeting with clients. Documenting the festival with photos and a blog... and just generally having a blast celebrating the city of New Orleans and the musicians there... many of which are our clients and friends.  

One last thing... shameless plug... check out my blog here: www.whyharrelson.com/jens-blog
This is where I will be posting all about the festival... and doing client interviews on a weekly basis!