I got a good tip from a professional lately for testing instruments. He said that you go to ITG and see everyone pick up a horn, squeal like crazy as high as they can, and say "That's a great horn!", or not. He said that's a terrible way to test a trumpet. Of course you want to try out the upper register for response and intonation but he said one of the best things you can try is very soft breath attacks on middle G. He said you can tell a lot about how a trumpet will behave from the way it responds in the middle register on breath attacks. If it happens quick and easy you've got a good match between player, mouthpiece, and horn. If you have to work to make it speak in the middle register but the upper register plays great you haven't really got a very good horn in your hands.
I was wondering if anyone else had any good stratgeies for testing trumpets. One thing is I'm going to make a list of tunes and excerpts I want to play on it. I hate driving away from the music store and thinking, "Oh, I wish I played the opening from that canzona on it. And My Funny Valentine, and the lead part from You Gotta Try, and the Concone, and that Charlier..." You get the idea.
Apart from harmonic slurs, double and triple octave scales, breath attacks, and specifics tunes....does anyone have any good testing tips?