I played cornet and trumpet in high school and college more than forty years ago and wanted to get back into playing. I obviously didn't want to spend a lot of money since I'm not going to be playing professionally. After much research I decided to purchase the Thomann TR 500 S trumpet.
I played a professional Bach trumpet back in high school, but I don't have one to compare it with side by side today. But with that said, after practicing on this trumpet for almost two months now, I am very impressed with it. It has exceeded my expectations. I have not found any issues with the build quality of the instrument. It is well built, and the valves work perfectly. They are very smooth and have worked perfectly. The springs on the valves though require more pressure to push down on than any other trumpet I've played, but it's not an issue and I just got used to how they feel. But these strong springs also make me confident that the valves won't be sticking. It's also an easy fix for me to just replace the valve springs with some others that aren't as stiff if I wanted to.
The first and third valve slides also work perfectly. I've never had a horn where the slides work as well as these do. The third valve slide especially seems to slide as smoothly and easily as a trombone slide after I oiled and greased it up. Also, the silver finish looks very sharp.
The horn seems to play very well. This is where I wish I had a $4000 professional trumpet that I could play and compare it with now. But I feel it has a very good tone and plays in tune well. I do still have my professional cornet from high school to compare this with, and I feel this horn plays as well as it does. And I actually prefer the way this trumpet plays over my old cornet.
This horn has exceeded my expectations and I am very happy with how it has worked out for my needs since I wanted something of good quality but still inexpensive to allow me to get back into trumpet playing. If I had known how much I was going to enjoy playing again, I probably would have purchased the more expensive model with the reverse lead pipe and one piece bell. Not because there's anything wrong with this horn, but just to try out the reverse lead pipe which I've never played on before. That said, I'm still very happy with the quality of this trumpet, and am enjoying playing it every day.
Since I'm impressed enough with the quality of the Thomann instruments, I may still purchase one of their more expensive trumpets and am seriously considering one of their Flugelhorns just to have fun with.
Overall, I am very pleased with this trumpet, especially considering the price.
