Bob Reeves Horn Mouthpieces

Bob Reeves started making mouthpieces in 1964 in the back of his mother’s garage in Glendale, California on a lathe purchased for him by his trumpet teacher, John Clyman. A US Navy trained machinist and toolmaker by trade, Bob apprenticed in the art of trumpet making at the Benge Company and  mouthpiece making with custom mouthpiece maker Carroll Purviance.

While the machining side of mouthpiece making came easy to Bob — he famously notes that he was making mouthpieces within 15 minutes of working at Purviance — it was a year into his apprenticeship when Bob reached a critical turning point in his career:  he didn’t have the knowledge to solve the problems of the customers coming into the shop.

This realization sparked a lifelong quest to learn how to serve his customers better through acoustical research, machining technologies, and empirical research with musicians.

In 1968 Bob officially founded Bob Reeves Brass. Since then Bob Reeves and his team have been serving the worldwide brass community through their expert consultation, mouthpieces, valve alignments, and custom work.