EMO WORLD balanced Trumpet – Germany – Circa 1952 **
iconic, rare, and fantastic
Balanced? An ergonomic design that aims to balance the weight of the trumpet evenly across the player’s hands, enhancing the ease of play and comfort.
The brand is EMO, [for Ernst Modl] a brand which Louis Armstrong played from – it seems – the mid-1950s.
Both Selmer advertising mystique, and conventional wisdom [quite correctly] stressed Louis’s use of Selmer trumpets during his career, but, equally, they obscured the evolution of Armstrong’s trumpet choice and to a large extent led to a persisting Selmer mythology. But in his handwritten letter from the Sands, Las Vegas, Nevada, [last photograph] he wrote to Ernst Modl, the maker –
“Dear Mr Modl … The EMO trumpet is the finest horn that I have ever played in my whole life…”
brasspedia.com has a fulsome and fascinating account of the fabulous trumpet making of Ernst Modl, including the history not just of the brand but of it’s “family” pedigree, and the enthusiastic – and perhaps permanent – adoption of EMO by Louis Armstrong once he discovered it. – https://brasspedia.com/index.php?title=Ernst_Modl_brass_instruments
This is the silver version of the EMO WORLD balanced trumpet. It is a relatively heavy instrument solidly and beautifully built, and plays beautifully: it is the silver trumpet shown below [the Emo cornet on the left and the trumpet on the right are for comparison] :
One photo below shows the trumpet against the cover of an original Program of the Louis Armstrong tour to Australia, and in the background the bell of a [new old stock] gold EMO WORLD DELUXE trumpet similar to the one Louis played on that tour. [you can see the actual one he played online at the Louis Armstrong House Museum, www.louisarmstronghouse.org] [You can also find this entire program brochure online at the LAHM – my original copy is not included]
One picture shows part of the inside of the program brochure together with the bell of a rare EMO cornet on the left, and the gold NOS EMO trumpet on the right.
another photo shows the silver EMO WORLD trumpet for sale, in the background are Louis Armstrong’s quoted words about EMO which are set out in the advertisement included in the brochure
One photo shows the bell engraving detail on the trumpet for sale.
Early EMO trumpets did not have serial numbers. This one is #2104
The case is not original, but is – and looks – good and solid. All the case hardware is in good condition.
As Louis said in his letter to Ernst Modl –
“it’s something in your trumpet that makes the whole soul feel good and relaxed”
The bell structure – the turned back external lip or rim – is called a “French rim”