A BESPOKE musical instrument maker which supplies professional and amateur players around the world and has its roots in Bradford has celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Rath Trombones was founded by Mick Rath, who began repairing trombones in a small workshop beneath Woods music shop on Manningham Lane, Bradford.

He chose the city because of its location at the heart of brass band country and stayed here for eight years before relocating to larger workshops at its present site in Honley, near Huddersfield where Rath Trombones now employs 15 people making bespoke instruments for professionals and the likes of the Black Dyke Band.

One of the world’s top trombone players Carol Jarvis of Soul Tubes, played at the firm’s 20th birthday bash.

Over the past year Mick has supplied trombones to the Jools Holland Band and David Whitehouse of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Corpus Quartet and the Count Basie Orchestra, embracing all musical genres.

The company exports around 75 per cent of its products, including to the United States, the Far East and Europe through a network of distributors.

Mick set about designing his own trombone, refining it until he was happy enough to put his name to it. But going into manufacturing was tough given the small market and the lack of machinery to create trombones.

Mick said: “I had to make some of the tooling myself and even though we are now a larger operation we still use it and train our own team of engineers.

“There was an obvious gap in the market between trombones for professional musicians and aspirational players so we developed the oo range.

“Launched onto the world market three years ago it has dramatically increased our turnover and now accounts for about half the number of trombones that we make and export.

Marketing his trombones to musical colleges and universities around the globe helped establish the Rath name through an entry level instrument for students.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary Mick is working on an anniversary model with 21st Century design features.

“To remain at the top of the tree and attract new customers we have to evolve the brand. Hopefully this new trombone will be a fitting reflection of our 20th anniversary,

“I always say that my name is my word and it has become a byword for trombone quality because over the years. We’ve listened to our customers and responded.”