Custom Dizzy Gillespie Style Trumpet

10.13.2018 - 01.05.2019

I bought an Olds Ambassador Trumpet on eBay and modified the bell to look like Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet.

To bend the bell, I removed the bell from the trumpet using my kitchen blowtorch. To ensure that kinking would not occur I filled the bell with Woods Metal, a metal that melts around the boiling point of water. I bent the bell using a wood jig I had fixed on a heavy table and my body weight. After bending, I removed the woods metal and re-brazed the bell back to the trumpet. The timbre of the trumpet changed slightly but wasn't too noticeable.

Some person on eBay was willing to buy the trumpet for double what I payed for it. Who knows, maybe this is the next big musical instrument market...