DukeONuke

Yo your TFF (too friggin' funny). I'm laughing my butt off! Hey...I've got a SIMBA...It seems to play OK.... at the moment. But yeah..It's cheap. Think I paid $160 for it at Sams Club. I used to play trumpet back in my high school days, and decided I'd buy a cheap trumpet and see if I could still play. It's coming back! Been looking at get a Flugelhorn and Pocket Trumpet/Coronet now. On the Simba: The water key corks are not cork. They're some type of spongy synthetic stuff. The valve felts are not felt - Neoprene I think. Model # is TR205. The finger keys have a cheap little cardboard shim under them. I had to re glue one that fell off. All that stuff is tolerable though, and the trumpet seems to sound OK. Better then the Yamaha that I used to have in high school back in the 80's. What really ticks me off is that the front slide is a seriously sticky. I pulled the sucker apart last night & wet sanded the OD and scotch brighted the ID. its is still sticky. Better...but still sticky...and too hard to slide with my finger while playing. If anybody has some advice on how to deal with the issue, I'd highly appreciate it. I'm assuming one pair of tubes are not parallel and causing the jam/stickyness. Latter, The Duke

GoodMusic@PA

The case is good, hmmm.... to think i just spent $80 on a new case two weeks ago... ahhhh!!!! i could have gotten a free lamp with it...

Kenne60

Well you have to be realistic about the Simba. About a year ago I bought a Simba as a toy for my 3 year old who wanted to play with my trumpet ( A Lawler at the time and a Stage One California Light now). I bought it for $37.50 on sale at a Tuesday Morning store. Yes I can play it. In fact with the unmarked 7c like mouthpiece it came with it sounds like a trumpet from low C to about middle C. It sounds a little better with my GR. It is cheaply made. Nothing works all that well. If you oil the valves every few mins and use the push pull technique( push down pull up) the valves sort of work. But it does play well enough to get an ok sound out of it. No student could use it for long without frustration setting in. However, I paid the same price you would pay for a toy trumpet. It is what it is. It as absurd to compare it to trumpets costing much much more. Oh and I did't think the case on mine was all that great. Just a plain molded plastic case. ( I think the Simba I have is their cheapest model)

The Dutch Guy

hehehehe, that really made me laugh.

I wish I'd find a really cheap trumpet to ride over with my bike. (don't have car, nor a license), or if it is a decent one, keep it so I finally have a trumpet of my own

surplusguy

In the past two years, I have purchased 8-10 Chinese manufactured trumpets to test. Some were branded Simba, Pathfinder, Gibson-Baldwin, Hawk, Selman, Wurzburg and some "no-name". The "Pathfinder" was pretty bad with horrible valves and flimsy brass pieces. Played OK but probably only good for a few months. The most recent horns have vastly improved valves even though they aren't nickel and don't appear to be stainless, and better quality brass componets and construction. I have play-tested all of them. Some of the new ones even boast Monel valves. Of course, it won't sound or play like a pro horn, but to me, the tone is equal to other student instuments. I have one these with Monel valnes coming in soon and want to find out how good/bad the valves are.
What many people here fail to acknowledge is that many of the entry-level trumpets from well-known brands are also made in China.... perhaps to some higher degree of manufacturing standards but I'd bet not by much. I'm not trying to promote them specifically, but as a former band director, if cost is a factor to the parents of a beginning musician and their choice is for a beat up used horn or a shiny new one, I'd vote for the new one. The kid will likely practice more because it looks better. Granted, the materials and construction and possibly tone of some vintage horns is better. Now if the kid doesn't take care of the horn, it won't work very long and the valves will be the first to hang up. And, there is a valid argument that getting them repaired is a big problem. But if you do take care of it, it will likely last until he/she is ready for a better quality horn. So, if you want to argue that buying new chinese horns results in sending our dollars out of the county, just remember where some of the entry-level horns are actually made. I understand that dealers in the US won't get the profit from the sale, but they should benefit from the sale of a step-up instrument later because the kid continued playing with a horn that looked and sounded Ok versus giving up on a beatup instrument.
Buying new Chinese versus used vintage US instruments is an important decision to the parents of a beginning musician. But I urge everyone to make their decision based more on facts instead of the popular "chinese junk horns" perceptions.

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Yamaha 8310Z "Bobby Shew"
Besson "Marvin Stamm" .462
Besson International
Holton T101B "Symphony"
Selman Cornet
Wurzburg Flugal

operagost

I hope you took a photo of the poor young lion under the wheel. Don't let the humane society see it, though. These Chinese horns seem even worse than the Mexican Conns that were so bad, Conn made a point of putting "U.S.A." on all the case badges after they returned production to the States.

lmf

Hey, DukeofNuke,

How are those Simba valves holding up for ya?

Wonder what the life of them are?

Best wishes,

Lloyd

tedh1951

Would they be any good for playing extracts from "The Lion King"?

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Ted

Schwab

I think those Mexican Conns you are referring to were made in Abilene, TX.

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Dylan Schwab
Stage 1 New York

operagost

Then I was misinformed. I was told that Conn made some horns in Mexico.
In fact, this page claims that the time perioud was actually the late 70s, and that when the company was sold in 1980 the Mexico plants were all closed. Abilene is not even mentioned. This is a saxophone page, but when they say "all horns" I'm assuming all wind instruments. Then if you look at the Wikipedia page, it says that all Mexican plants were closed in 1987, the year I got my "Conn U.S.A." 100B.

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2006 Yamaha Xeno 8335RGS
1987 Conn 100B "Doc Severinsen"
1946 Conn 22B "New York Symphony"