Zig Kanstul’s long career as a brass craftsman included decades of overseeing development and production for F.E. Olds & Son, King Musical Instruments’ Benge Trumpets and, after founding Kanstul Musical Instruments, producing trumpets for Boosey & Hawkes’ French Besson line. Today, in addition to our full line of Kanstul-branded horns, we continue to manufacture for some of the finest private-branded lines of brasswinds in the business.
For this edition, we’re spotlighting Flip Oakes Wild Thing Trumpets.
A performing musician from the age of 12, Flip spent many years working with instruments as both a player and repair technician, and eventually set out to realize his vision of the ultimate trumpet.
Flip’s comprehensive understanding of trumpet mechanics coupled with his innate talent gave him confidence to experiment with trumpets. Flip played thousands of horns as a repair technician and owned over a hundred different trumpets in a variety of brands and bore sizes, all in search of an open trumpet with fast response that articulated with ease, and allowed for a wide range of play. He changed bells, switched leadpipes, altered slides, and manipulated braces. However, after several years of disappointing results, Flip realized that he was looking for a trumpet that didn’t exist. Inspired by his vision, Flip set out to design what he considered to be the ideal trumpet.
Confident in his precise design, Flip commissioned Zig Kanstul to build a horn exactly to his specifications. The result was a masterpiece. Since this unique trumpet didn’t yet have a name, Zig took it upon himself to engrave the bell with “Killer.” But as Flip introduced his trumpet to fellow players, they all said the same thing, “This thing is really WILD and I want one!”
The Flip Oakes “Wild Thing Trumpet” was born.
Today, Kanstul is proud to be the manufacturer of the entire line of Flip Oakes instruments. These including Wild Thing trumpets, flugelhorns and cornets, the Flip Oakes “C” trumpet, Celebration trumpet, Legend trumpet (based on the original Besson design), and the amazing Flip Oakes Inspiration trumpet, a unique design by Flip with input from the phenomenal trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.
In addition to traditional Kanstul hand-craftsmanship, each instrument Flip sells is put through the rigorous Flip Oakes Total Enhancement process prior to delivery. Learn more at flipoakes.com
And check out Flip’s demo of the new Legend and Inspiration trumpets!
