Mick Rath oversees new student trombones

Written By: David Read Comments: 0

Mick Rath oversees new student trombones

Top British trombone designer and manufacturer Mick Rath has recently travelled to China to mastermind a new student trombone at the John Packer instrument factory. He has introduced many of his design features to the new instrument and worked with the Chinese technicians to give advice and demonstrations about each element of construction.

John Packer recently launched new trumpets and cornets in a collaboration with Richard Smith (Smith-Watkins) and they were very pleased with how that project has turned out.

The aims of this new instrument are very high performance level and build quality but that could be sold at the price of a student model. The bells and slides are now made using the same methods as Mick's own professional models and incorporate high grade brass.

Distancing their instruments from the multitude of other Chinese-made offerings on the market, a spokesperson for John Packer said:

We have been working with this factory for several years because they have shown a desire and determination (and subsequent capability) to produce instruments of a high quality rather than follow the traditional crowd down the 'make it quick and cheap and put a myriad names on it' route. The other important quality that they have is their understanding that consistency is vital. To aid this they have been investing in new machinery from simple jigs to state of the art CNC machines and have also been upgrading the working environment.

The JP231RATH was launched at the ITF in Denmark last month.

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