Mike Lovatt - Smith-Watkins success story
The new Mike Lovatt Smith-Watkins Professional Trumpet has been a runaway success – Nicola Bland reports
Since its almost low-key launch last year, the ML Smith-Watkins Professional Trumpet has fast won converts amongst players.
Designed by Mike Lovatt in collaboration with Smith-Watkins’s acoustic scientist, Richard Smith, the instrument has a 460” diameter bore, a 360mm yellow brass bell, laser-etched Titanium finger buttons and the Mike-Lovatt lead-pipe as standard. There are two plate options - silver and gold, and the Mike Lovatt Mouthpiece is supplied as an optional extra. The instrument comes in a case with additional space for a second trumpet and mutes, and is a rarity these days because it is handcrafted and designed in Britain - specifically in North Yorkshire.
Why has this instrument proved to be so popular in such a short space of time? ‘Great chops’ Mike Lovatt, as he’s known in the trade, believes that its popularity is because it feels like an old friend and is so versatile. He observed: “I tackle a lot of different styles of music, from playing third trumpet in a symphony orchestra to ‘screaming’ high notes in a big band - this trumpet does the job. It feels like an old friend. When you play a brass instrument, you’re trying to get a feeling that you’re used to the instrument when you put it to your face and the ‘ML Smith-Watkins’ feels like that. Feedback tells me that the trumpet feels comfortable to hold and the resistance/balance is good - it feels like home.”
Mike added: “The smaller bore means that the trumpet will spark up if you play loudly and, if you blow softly, it has a nice, round orchestral sound. I’d also always thought that the Smith-Watkins interchangeable lead-pipe, which slots into another lead-pipe with a nut, is very solid and adds to the resonance.”
Smith-Watkins has a new agent in America - Richard Galime, for years an agent for Denis Wick in the USA, who has just acquired Dan Fisher Inc. from its namesake.
Richard Galime is thrilled to stock Smith-Watkins instruments because he only stocks ranges that he believes in and commented: “I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about Smith-Watkins, so I’m pretty excited about the opportunity to sell them because I have to believe in the products that we carry.”
Richard Smith and Richard Galime will be at the North American Brass Band Championships in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 10-11 March and invite anyone present to come and have a chat to them about the Smith-Watkins’s range.
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