We're truly excited to announce the first new Monette instrument since the FLUMPET was invented back in 1990. The SATTVA is a one of a kind, unique new instrument that was inspired by and invented for Denver recording artist Ron Miles.

Dave and Ron had been talking about what might come together for Ron's next generation Monette instrument for some time. Ron invited Dave to come up to Jazz Alley in Seattle late last year to hear him perform with Bill Frisell. On that visit some new ideas started to come together, and the two decided it was time to make a new horn happen!

The physical construction of the new instrument started in January of this year, and we delivered the horn to Ron in late May, just in time for the 25th Anniversary of the completion of first Monette trumpet (May 22, 1983). Ron took a couple weeks to start to get to know the horn, then used it with Don Byron’s small group at Yoshi’s in San Francisco the first week of June!

Dave Monette flew down to San Francisco to hear how Ron sounded on the new creation, and was thrilled with the sounds Ron was getting out of the instrument! Links to video clips of Ron demonstrating the horn and a video interview with Ron discussing his thoughts on the horn can be found in the left margin of this page.

The Details... Sound First!

The most important consideration in any instrument design is the sound one wants to produce on the finished instrument. Dave always loved the power and depth Ron got when playing on his decorated SAMADHI... but it had become apparent that Ron needed more than just a trumpet - even a SAMADHI - to get to his next level of expression.

Looking to move ahead, Ron took up the cornet a few years ago and we made him the first PRANA 900 series Monette cornet. This robust horn, designed to be used with a deep "Vee" mouthpiece helped Ron move in a new direction, as can be heard on his 2007 double CD release, "Stone and Blossom." Stone was recorded on his SAMADHI, while Blossom was recorded on the new cornet. The intimacy and personality of the cornet is captivating, as is the depth of sound Ron gets with the SAMADHI.

Fast forward to late 2007, and the question became how to get the best of both instruments and even more all in one package?

Sitting in a Jazz Club...

In the club in Seattle that night as Dave listened to the band, he kept thinking of three other favorite players, and how they, like Ron, were also "ahead of their time." In their three unique sounds, Dave found the musical reference points needed for designing Ron's new horn. He wanted to hear a new dimension to Ron's sound, and the vehicle for this would be inspired by a synthesis of these three greats, mixed with the full arsenal of Ron's technique, imagination and personal flare.

Charlie Schlueter, Don Fagerquist and Nat Adderly

Charlie Schlueter has a revolutionary depth, power and extreme dynamic range that has redefined trumpet playing forever. Ron's music has a similar depth, and this - along with an elevated clarity and an expanded dynamic range - were the first qualities Dave wanted to build into Ron's new horn.

Dave has always admired Don Fagerquist's solo sound from the Dave Pell Octet recordings. Dave loved his beautiful sound and perfect articulation. Bobby Shew, who took Don's place in the Dave Pell Octet, told Dave that Don played his solos quite softly, with the mic buried in his bell so he could get to that unique sound and articulation with no distortion. Dave felt that Ron needed a horn that would allow this same beautiful clarity and eliminate any distortion or pitch fluctuation in articulation, but with Schlueter's greatly expanded dynamic range.

Nat Adderly was the third favorite Dave kept thinking of that night. Dave would have loved to have designed and built a custom instrument for him, with better intonation than a cornet and a wider range of colors to fit his huge personality and his sophisticated, joyful approach.

Dave felt that Ron could take all these positive qualities to the next generational level - if he had the right equipment. He felt Ron had even more unique colours, shapes and sounds just waiting to come out the bell of his horn...

Design and Construction

Dave knew an instrument in Bb would never get to where he wanted this new instrument to go - it would be too short for the wide radius bends required for the huge targets and depth of sound Ron requires. He also knew making the horn too long would be problematic in the upper register, so keep it to within a minor third of Ron's Bb SAMADHI and cornet.

The Key of G was selected for sound considerations, and thankfully the length of the horn ended up to be perfect for layout in two sets of large, ovate bends. Surprisingly when Dave called Ron to tell him he was thinking about building the horn in the key of "G," Ron said, "Sure, no problem!" Ron Miles...

The valve section had to have a new layout, with much wider spaced valve slide tubes than that of a Bb trumpet.

The horn needed to have a length from mouthpiece rim to bell flare SHORTER than that of a Bb trumpet, so the bell would not be too far away from the player's ears. This would make it easier for the player to hear in small clubs and in poor acoustic situations. It also needed to be heavy enough to provide a massive depth of sound, but light enough to easily hold on long European tours with jet lag, a string of one-nighters and not enough sleep. We ended up using custom-designed parts of about the same thickness as Wynton's PRANA 3 Bb. Thanks to being in the Key of "G" and with some special mouthpiece wizardry thrown in, plenty of depth of sound was available even at this moderate weight.

The bell ended up at about a 6" inch diameter - large enough to sound much bigger than any trumpet but not so large as to be too dispersed or distorted like a French horn or mellophone bell can be at the loud dynamics.

Mouthpiece, oh that Mouthpiece!

The hardest part of fine-tuning this instrument by far was figuring out the bracing size, thickness and position, and the corresponding mouthpiece proportions. These two variables are inextricably linked! Every change in bracing as we worked on the horn required a mouthpiece length change of anywhere between .003" to .020" Once the bracing was finalized, we started working on fine-tuning the mouthpiece length to the nearest thousandth of an inch. Then, we worked on cup depth, cup shape, cup diameter, backbore shape and size, mouthpiece blank weight proportion and the big surprise - mouthpiece shank size! We ended up making over 60 prototype mouthpieces over the five month development period to really get it right!

In order to get true, "constant pitch center" from low F# to double C, the shank size of the mouthpiece ended up LARGER THAN THAT OF A BASS TROMBONE! This posed many construction problems in the mouthpiece receiver and leadpipe, and required Dave Monette to jump on the computer and design an all-new leadpipe mandrel even beyond the unusual design we started out with!

Once we finally got constant pitch center figured out over three and a half octaves, it was time to see what Nick could come up with for a case and send the horn off to Ron to check out!

Thanks to Ron for inspiring the SATTVA! We look forward to hearing some truly new sounds coming from Denver...