Treble makers: Couple repurposes broken instruments into ‘functional’ art

Written by Jessi Bang
December 10, 2022

ST. GEORGE —One couple is transforming vintage musical instruments into sound amplifiers, Bluetooth speakers, table lamps, clocks and more, providing artistic keepsakes that would otherwise be discarded. 

Jay and Tabitha Nygaard, owners of Last Chance Brass, pose for a photo in their home garage, St. George, Utah, Nov. 30, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
Jay and Tabitha Nygaard, owners of Last Chance Brass, pose for a photo in their home garage, St. George, Utah, Nov. 30, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News

Tabitha and Jay Nygaard, owners of Last Chance Brass, have turned their love for instruments into an art form they create together. Both are musicians; Tabitha Nygaard plays the trumpet and french horn, while Jay Nygaard plays the trombone, tuba, drums and various other instruments.

“It’s repurposed, functional art,” Tabitha Nygaard said about their brass creations. “It kind of just combined all of our interests – the artsy side and the music side.”

The instrumental art stemmed from a photo Tabitha Nygaard first saw online while in college. Inspired by the concept, she and her late grandfather worked together to create a brass phone amplifier for her college senior project. Over the years, the Nygaards collected brass instruments with the intention to start a business when they found the time.

In 2020, when the pandemic resulted in school shutdowns, Tabitha Nygaard said her position as a full-time art teacher was placed on hold. She decided it was the perfect time to make Last Chance Brass an official business. That Christmas, they attended their first local market, and have since sold their instruments at craft fairs, art festivals and the St. George Downtown Farmers Market.

An instrument by Last Chance Brass features a phone dock to amplify sound, St. George, Utah, Nov. 30, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News
An instrument by Last Chance Brass features a phone dock to amplify sound, St. George, Utah, Nov. 30, 2022 | Photo by Jessi Bang, St. George News

“We’ve even got a few Frankenstein instruments, like pieces of a brass clarinet with the loopy bell and all the tubing from an old baritone,” Jay Nygaard said. “We’re constantly coming up with new things.”

The couple creates phone amplifiers out of trumpets, trombones, french horns, and baritones, along with old car horns and military bugles. The repurposed pieces come in both Bluetooth and non-Bluetooth options. 

The Bluetooth amplifiers are created by pulling the instrument apart, placing the speaker inside and welding it back together. Phones are then connected by an outside electrical plate. Non-Bluetooth pieces offer a laser-cut phone dock which allows the phone’s built-in speaker to go through the pipe and amplify sound, with no charging or batteries required. 

“It comes out of the speaker and bounces through the horn and comes out louder,” Tabitha Nygaard said. “It’s what they’re built to do – just amplify. But instead of a mouthpiece, we’re using a speaker.”

All instruments used are beaten up, broken down and not worth the cost to fix.  Tabitha Nygaard said they use as many recycled and reclaimed materials as possible, and source their instruments from a Northern Utah school district surplus or a warehouse of instruments in Maine. Purchasing pallets of instruments at a time, they have received some that are over 100 years old. 

A booth for Last Chance Brass is shown at a local market, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Tabitha Nygaard, St. George News
A booth for Last Chance Brass is shown at a local market, location and date unspecified | Photo courtesy of Tabitha Nygaard, St. George News

“We love the really broken down, old ones – like buried in a shed for 30-40 years with water damage,” Jay Nygaard said.

Along with using brass instruments as amplifiers, the couple also repurposes car horns and bugles, which are found at thrift shops such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army. They create table lamps out of clarinets, flutes and trumpets, and turn larger woodwind instruments like bass clarinets into floor lamps.

But that’s not all. They repurpose old drums into decorative shelves and create clocks out of broken cymbals.

“We just celebrated our 11-year anniversary, and we’re still picking up new skills and hobbies along the way,” Jay Nygaard said. “Being able to do it together has been very special on a lot of levels, mostly because we already have a lot of the same interests and hobbies in common. We get to travel, we get to meet people and we get to do it together.”

Have grandpa’s old trumpet? Don’t know what to do with it? Last Chance Brass accepts commission pieces, including the use of pre-owned instruments. For more information on Last Chance Brass, visit their website or find them on Instagram.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessi Bang was born and raised in Utah and has a passion for nature and the great outdoors. She graduated from Kaplan University in California with a degree in criminal justice. She has extensive experience in marketing, content creation, photography and copywriting. You can find her showcasing outdoor adventures through her blog, “The Rambling Raccoon.” In her free time, she enjoys climbing mountains, trail running, working out and cuddling her two lovable pups.

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Twitter: @STGnews

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