CEO Sheryl Laukat tells a little bit about the history of Cannonball...
"Tevis & I met in 1982. I was a Jr. High Band Director and Tevis was sponsored by the local music store to visit my band classes as a guest clinician.
We both loved the saxophone. It was my major instrument in college and Tevis was a professional musician, playing all the doubles, but especially the saxophone. He had a B.S.
degree in music performance. We soon married, and several years later we discovered something grand!"
"Tevis and I both played on valued vintage saxophones. But one day a newer saxophone came into our hands. The trouble was,
it didn't play or sound very good. Tevis regulated it and it improved, but the sound and the pitch was still lacking. For fun, we began to experiment with
the horn, altering the air flow and changing the acoustical properties of the instrument. We were amazed at what happened! Through divine
inspiration we soon became very good at altering the pitch of any note we wanted, and changing
the tone quality of the instrument. If we wanted clearer altissimo we could do it. If we wanted more lows, or focus we could do it. Before long, it was nearly impossible to tell the difference
in sound between our valued vintage horns and this new horn and the pitch surpassed our vintage horns. We were jumping up and down with excitement! We
knew we really had something! We were so excited that we risked everything and mortgaged our home to pursue our new adventure!"
"After nearly 10 years of success and recognition with Cannonball Saxophones, we noticed the need in the music industry for a high
quality trumpet that would expand upon the acoustical knowledge that we had discovered and developed with the saxophone. We then
hired Juilliard Trumpet Performance graduate Kelly Ricks and recognized the potential to take advantage of this opening in the market
for trumpets. We searched the globe for a quality manufacturer who was willing to work with our ideas and innovations to construct a unique
instrument."
