Jimi Michiel

This year I've taught a lot of beginner lessons. I teach in two different school districts and I employed by a music store. When a student rents/buys a horn, they get 6 "free" lessons. I get paid less than my normal rate, but after the intro lessons, the students who want to continue pay my regular rate.

The band directors request the instruments they want their students to play. At one of my schools, most of the kids have Yamaha or Getzen instruments. In general, I'm not a huge fan of any Yamaha instruments, but the student horns seem to be well made, durable and play fairly well. No problem their. The Getzen horns are amazing!!! They're as well made and durable as the Yamahas, but they play a million times better. If I were in a bind and needed a Bb horn to play a jazz band or show gig, I would have no problem using one of these.

Now for the rant...

The band director at my other school requested Bach instruments. To put it bluntly, I wouldn't wish these instruments on my worst enemies. Give me a Chinese eBay trumpet any day. I spend half my time in lessons trying to get the valves to work. Half of them just don't fit right. One of my students had to send his horn back the day he got it because he could barely blow through it. I tried to play it and it felt like there was enough solder in there to block about 75 percent of the lead pipe. Another one of my students dropped his horn. It literally fell apart. This is a good, honest kid. He said he dropped it from about three feet and it landed on a tile floor. His Dad confirmed. The horn is in horrible condition. The bell is squashed, the braces detached. I've seen dropped horns. Very few have faired as poorly as this one. The funny thing was that it was still playable... and didn't play noticeably worse than it did pre-accident. Another one of my students recieved a horn with an irregularly shaped mouthpiece receiver. Argh... And the worst part: they're charging almost $800 for these "trumpets."

I'm in a tough spot because many of my students just purchased these junkers outright before they even met me. I try to warn the ones that are just renting. I'm going to tell the band directors that I won't teach in their districts if if they continue to request Bach trumpets. I want to teach trumpet, not spend 15 out of 30 minutes each lesson explaining why it's not their fault that the valves on their cheap, POS Bach won't come back up after they push them down.

-Jimi

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Dale Proctor

That's probably where the cheapo (quality, not price) Bachs are made.

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Sterling

I'm a band director in central NY. About 15 years ago, I had the same valve problems with King student trumpets. The zone rep said that there was nothing wrong with them. About a year later, I found out that their ultrasonic cleaning bath was not working properly before final assembly and that many other band directors had the same valve problems. It took me a long time to go back to King student instruments. They work fine for my students now. Bach could be experiencing a similar problem today.
In central New York, we don't see many Getzen trumpets. Mostly Holton, King, Yamaha, and Bach.

Puffy A

I'll second the Getzen student horns. I teach a ton of beginners and middle schoolers and was really skeptical when the first kid came in with the Getzen. Plays well and as trouble free as you could hope for in a student model. Very surprising but refreshingly welcome.

Arlo

brem

I played a Yamaha student trumpet when I was in high school and it was the worst piece of S. I have ever played. The valves kept sticking.

My guess is that the companies don't spend any time in QA for their student horrns. A shame.

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brem
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NYTC Stage 1 California Light - Schilke 15B mpc
Bach Stradivarius Bb Model 37 * #124xxx (circa 1975) - Schilke 15B mpc
Yamaha YFH-731 Flugelhorn #000xxx - Yamaha 14F4-GP mpc

brunets

I had the same feeling with the Yamaha student horns. Whenever I try one, I'm amazed how harder to play they are compared to my "crappy/old" 1948 Conn 22B. :-D

Trumpet playing is not easy at first. It is a shame that the learning curve is steeper because of crappy student horns.

Stéphane

Blazing Asian

I got a student Bach trumpet from the music store for around $250. I think it has served me well for 4 years. So...I guess it just depends.

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Trumpets--
Bach Stradivarius Bb 37
Bach TR300 Bb
Cornets--
King 602 Bb

confuoco

I agree about the Getzen's They are built great, play well, and the valves are the best out there. Best starter horn IMHO.

I've taught a couple of kids through the years and the Yamaha student trumpets I encountered always seemed to have valve problems. Valves hanging, slow valves etc.

I have seen a couple of the new Bach student trumpets and the ones I encountered were -ok-

Who makes accent trumpets? Saw one the other day and it looked pretty good but didn't play it.

If you have a student buy a Getzen!

Jimi Michiel

I grew up very close to you, in Lafayette, but went to school closer to Syracuse. Small world I guess. I was started out on some kind of Holton. We traded it in for a used Yamaha intermediate. I never heard of Getzen until I went to Interlochen. A shame.

The horns I have encountered seem to be all-around poorly constructed horns. As I said, it felt like the was solder blocking about 75 percent of one of the horns I played. Odd-shaped mouthpiece recievers have also been a problem. I wouldn't be surprised if ultra-sonic cleaning was among Bach's problems, but it's definately not the only one.

-Jimi

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Jimi Michiel

PS. Now that I think of it, both trumpets in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (Gary Bordner and Lynn Erickson) have small trumpets (Eb/D, F/G) built by Eric Peterson, a local repair guy, that began life as Getzen student horns. Eric added a new bell and leadpipe, but the valve cluster is from a Getzen student horn.

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