In the Mood:

NMM Welcomes a Yamaha Custom Trumpet

By Ana Sofia Silva, NMM contributor

The trumpet section of the 1972 Glenn Miller Orchestra - with an added trombone!

The NMM recently accepted a donation that tells part of the 50-plus years of history surrounding the inception of Yamaha professional trumpets in the US, which relied on collaboration with prominent American makers and artists — a B-flat trumpet, Yamaha Custom model YTR-920X, serial number 001, made ca. 1970 (NMM 15826).

Thompson (third from the right) is featured on the album cover of the Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded at Royal Festival Hall in London.

The trumpet’s previous owner, Dale Thompson, first played it when touring Japan with the renowned Glenn Miller Orchestra (GMO), under the direction of Buddy DeFranco in 1970. Thompson and his fellow trumpet players in the GMO were approached by Yamaha’s engineer, Yoshihiro Kaji, to test prototypes of Yamaha trumpets. At this time, it is relevant to note some of Yamaha’s history points in the US timeline.

In 1960, Yamaha established its subsidiary in the US, the Yamaha International Corporation. In 1966, Yamaha began the production of wind instruments and hired Renold Schilke (trumpet) as a consultant. With the help of colleagues like Elden Benge (trumpet), Philip Farkas (horn), Arnold Jacobs (tuba), and Bob Reeves (brass technician), Schilke assisted Yamaha in bringing a new line of brass instruments to the American market.

He was a great innovator in trumpet design, whose acoustic formulas and theories improved the intonation and response of the instruments. Yamaha clearly recognized Schilke’s genius and began manufacturing based on his designs. By the time Thompson was touring Japan with the GMO, Yamaha’s collaboration with Schilke was in full swing.

Dale Thompson with his custom Yamaha trumpet. Courtesy of Dale Thompson.

This custom trumpet is a lightweight, medium-

large bore (11.68mm / 0.460in), made in yellow brass with silver-plated trim, a reverse leadpipe in rose brass, mother-of-pearl touchpieces, and a one-piece brass bell (124mm / 4 7/8in).

In essence, it is very similar in design to a Schilke B5 trumpet model, with the exception of the bell size (smaller than the B5). It became the prototype for the professional Yamaha production model YTR-6320, one of Yamaha’s most successful lines in the 1980s and 1990s—the 6 series was Yamaha’s top model until the introduction of the Xeno models.

Trumpet in B-flat by Nippon Gakki Company, Ltd. (Yamaha), Hamamatsu, Japan, ca. 1970.

Yamaha Custom model YTR-920X. Gift of Dale Thompson, 2024.

As a consequence of being well used by Thompson during his GMO years, the trumpet returned to the factory and was refurbished to fix issues like brace breakage and bell denting. Not only did the instrument receive a less fragile bell and four strategically-placed braces, but also a special name dedication etched on the new bell. Customizations apart, NMM 15826 can be considered one of the earliest Schilke trumpet designs developed by Yamaha, now preserved at the NMM.