The Miami Valley is home to one of a handful of craftsmen making custom brass musical instruments in the U.S.
Through his company, Schlub Brassworks, owner George Schlub equips musicians around the world.
Schlub has been a part of musical instrument making for a long time.
It’s something he came to at a very young age.
“Since I was three,” he said. “My father was a violin maker and he and his brother founded the Loft Violin Shop in Columbus, Ohio, and then I kind of broke off and did my own thing.”
The only brass trumpet maker in Singapore
The part the younger Schlub played in instrument making was a humble one at first, but his role increased over time.
“I swept the floor all the way up into my adulthood, working in the violin shop, repairing violins, listening, feeling, seeing how instruments work, and they make their sound.," he said. "And I just translated that from wood into brass.”
Schlub calls it a mild rebellion of sorts when he didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps and instead became a trumpet player.
The transition to trumpet making came in 2008 when he moved to Singapore with his wife. Schlub said he couldn’t find someone there to service his trumpet when it needed fixing.
“I started doing it myself,” he said. “And then I became the only brass maker, trumpet maker in Singapore for about a decade.”
After that decade-long stint, Schlub came back to the U.S. where he remains to this day one of less than a handful of handcrafted brass instrument makers in the country.
30 ceremonial three-valve bugles
One of his most recent and biggest orders came when he was asked to supply the U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps with 30 ceremonial three-valve bugles.
“They wanted a reproduction of that period instrument. And the problem with the period instruments is they don't play the same as modern instruments,” he says.
So, Schlub sold the Fife and Drum Corps on the idea of a modified replica of the historic instrument they wanted. And once a successful design was agreed on, he said, “they said, hey, this is amazing. Can you do it 30 times?”
And Schlub delivered.
The U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps debuted the instruments during the 2025 inauguration of President Donald Trump.
This summer, Schlub, along with his apprentice, Josh Omaits, shared his love of instrument making with a small crowd gathered at the Miamisburg History Center during an America 250 celebration.
He demonstrated some of the work he puts into producing his modified trumpets. From design and material sourcing, to shaping and bending the bell, soldering and the annealing process.
Continued tradition
Watching the demonstration In the front row was Norbert Reynolds. For the last seven years he's been the band and choir director for Bishop Leibold High School, but his teaching career spans 42 years.
Reynolds called the presentation “amazingly informative.”
“Over the last few years I'd heard rumors about there being a trumpet maker, a custom maker, in Miamisburg and I didn't know who that was," he said. "And it's wonderful to finally discover that and he just completely impressed with everything and the way he talks about the manufacture of things and the individual craftsmanship that he's putting into these.”
Reynolds understands the need to mass produce musical instruments, but he said a lot of what's available now just isn't high quality.
“You might get lucky and get one that works well, but a lot of times they're not really well built," he said. "And in fact, there's a nickname for those instruments among band directors and we call them ISOs, which stands for instrument shaped object.”
It’s a situation not likely to improve. In June of this year, Con Selmer, the largest manufacturer of band instruments in the U. S., closed its factory in Eastlake, Ohio. Citing annual financial losses and an inability to compete with lower-cost production in Asia.
So Reynolds said what George Schlub is doing with quality hand-crafted instrument making is needed more than ever.
“Especially for people who want something at a higher level of performance, we're going to need people like this to continue the tradition," Reynolds said.
