Eastar Bb Pocket Trumpet Brass, Golden, Case Full Kit, ETR-330

Just got this. Beautifully packaged. Great case. Perfect product (no defects). Bright, full sound. Easy blowing. Good valve action. Easy to hold. Has both left hand thumb ring and right hand pinky grip. Lots of extras (accessories). Wonderful. Not disappointed! Not light or flimsy; gauge of metal seems just right. I am going to use it for playing at protest rallies.

My 13 year old plays trumpet and bugle and he wanted a pocket trumpet to mess around with, but not replace his performance instruments. We had a bad experience with his original bugle being of poor quality so I was a little apprehensive to spend money on another budget brand (aka not ones that music stores normally offer) but this Eastar Pocket Trumpet has met expectations and plays in tune. It comes with the case, chamois cloth, gloves, cleaning tools, and a 7c mouthpiece. It does accept a normal trumpet mouthpiece, so if you're used to a different size you should be able to continue using it. Right out of the box, I oiled the valves (Al Cass) and put some grease (MusicNomad) on the tuning slide. One of the valves was still a bit sticky, so gave it a tad more oiled and it helped. Now, obviously with the price different between this and a music store brand there's a difference in quality. I certainly felt it with the valves - the metal felt light and a bit tinny. Even the threads screwing them back on were a bit sticky rather than a smooth screw. I could tell the metal of the instrument itself was a different quality as well, but again, as to be expected. The biggest test was my son's brass teacher. He took it for a private lesson to help finish getting it set up, tuned and go through scales to see how it actually performs. The teacher was pleased and gave the instrument a passing grade - it performed well enough and my son was able to hit all the notes and play a few tunes. In the end, the price is right for my son's intent with the instrument. He has taken it to practice with a couple times and looking forward to taking it on vacations, camps, etc to keep up with practice while leaving his more expensive one in the safety of home. The case is a structured soft-sided case but I think will offer more protection than traditional gig bags.

I purchased the nickel-plated Eastar Pocket Trumpet to keep my embouchure in shape while traveling. I've had the horn for a week now, and I'm confident it will meet my needs in that area. I don't think I'll be performing in public on the horn (but who knows?). Construction quality: 1) The finish is beautiful. But one week isn't long enough to evaluate the durability of the finish. If I have problems down the road, I'll return here to report. 2) The valves work fine. I'm wiping them down and re-oiling them after every hour or so of playing. We'll see how that continues. 3) One of the faux pearl inserts on the valves came loose today. I've glued it back with a drop of super glue. I imagine that will take care of the problem. I'll let you know if that recurs. 4) If you zoom in on the attached photo of one of the valves, you can see the rough edge on one of the valve ports. The irregularity seems to be in a position that does not affect valve travel (which is perfectly smooth). It may have some minor turbulence effect (etc) but I do not notice it. It's the kind of thing I would expect to find on a $159 trumpet. Playability 1) I'm just now getting to the point where I know where the notes want to slot. It's very different from my primary trumpet. I don't think practicing this horn will make me much better at playing my main horn - it's that much different. I've decided to use the included 7C mouthpiece for this horn even though I use a premium 1.5C-sized mouthpiece on my main horn. The 7C just makes slotting much easier on this pocket trumpet, compared to my primary horn mouthpiece. 2) The sound on this horn is clear and sweet, when I get the slotting right. I haven't mastered that yet. So I can't get around on this horn as quickly and cleanly as I do on my main horn. That's probably to be expected. But I am getting better day by day. 3) Intonation is challenging on this horn. It has all the peculiarities of any 3 valve brass instrument, but they seem to be a bit more pronounced on this horn. Maybe that will get better as I continue to practice. There are the usual 1-2-3 and 1-0-3 valve combinations which require extending the 3rd slide. But I haven't mastered the technique of extending that slide without disrupting the stability of my embouchure. There is also the tendency of D, Eb, and E at the top of the staff to be flat. It is possible to compensate with alternate fingerings there, or to "lip it up" with the standard fingerings. It's nothing that trumpet players haven't addressed before. Bottom line, I'm quite happy with this horn. At $159, it's a real bargain. I believe it will enable me to keep my embouchure in shape while traveling, without requiring me to add my full size main horn to my baggage.

This is a great little pocket trumpet. I own a number of pocket trumpets including the smallest CarolBrass and a Phaeton. To me, both of those are better than this in basically every way, but cost considerably more. For most people who want a travel horn, this is hard to beat. It is the best in all categories, including intonation, that I've seen in lower end models. I have one fairly similar pocket trumpet purchased from a brass specialty retailer, which cost more than this, but less than a CarolBrass. That one has awful valves that stick no matter what I do. Basically, a useless instrument. I haven't had a single sticky issue with this horn, and due to the cost, I'm not religious about cleaning, not even in the break in period. Still, no issues. Highly portable, with decent case, which seems firm and moderately protective. Horn is ready to use out of the box after a quick cleaning and oiling. I never used the mouthpiece it came with, so I can't speak to that. I thought the other accessories were about what you'd expect at this price level (basically, I'm going to use my own). Overall, this is lightyears ahead of what you used to be able to get on a budget in this category. I own a number of high end trumpets, many of which are well known vintage models. Obviously this doesn't compare to those, but I enjoy playing it and it's fine for me when I want quick practice or need to take a low cost horn on a trip.

Purchased for my daughter who’s an advanced trumpet player. She loves the quality and sound.

I got this for my 11 year old trumpet playing son to bring along on vacations and camping trips. I spent a lot of time researching pocket trumpets and took a gamble on this one since everything else was over $800. After reading some reviews on Reddit, I was worried the trumpet would be unplayable, or would be more like a toy, but I was wrong. Like others suggested, when I got the trumpet I oiled the valves and tuning slides. My son was excited to try it out and immediately was able to play some scales and a few songs without too much trouble. He says it’s a little harder to blow than his normal trumpet which is to be expected, but he says he likes it and can’t wait to bring it on some trips. All in all I think this is going to be a perfect solution for his being able to practice and maintain his embouchure while we travel. It’s about half the length of his normal trumpet and weighs about .4 pounds less.

The trumpet is outstanding, even compared with more expensive student quality instruments. Construction and finish are excellent, and all the slides and valves move smoothly. Sound quality is very good. The mouthpiece that comes with it is ok, but results are noticeably better with a higher quality mouthpiece. The case is excellent, well made and very light, but sturdy enough to offer a lot of protection. The polishing cloth is adequate. The gloves are just thin cotton gloves. The cleaning brushes are very cheap, and mine arrived so smashed they are unusable. This kit does not come with slide grease or valve oil like many other trumpet kits do, but you can pick up good quality oil and grease for $5-$10. Overall this is a tremendous value. Just don't expect much from the accessories.

It's beautiful, there are cheaper pocket trumpets, but I doubt the are this good. Minor defects on finishing, but all main parts work pretty fine! It's well made, but doesn't come with oil and grease, just buy the NomadMusic kit, better than just gettin a bad oil and lower the quality of the product. Just remember to reset the main tunning slide before closing the case, it will damage the trumpet if forced!

Excelente Producto Buen Sonido y muy bonito

very nice trumpet and carrying case using it for traveling fits in my suitcase nicely plays as nice as my full size trumpet

Great little trumpet! It is well built and looks awesome.

Sounds very good.looks very good. works very good.I,m really enjoying this mini trumpet. Highly reccomend!!

Right out of the box the valves are the only thing that need oil, while the tuning piles have been pre-oiled. The thing is every brass instrument needs to be cleaned regularly so either way you're gonna need to touch up the oil job. My model had no major imperfections that I can see. This trumpet is constructed pretty well and sounds great! I would highly recommend getting a mute like a Pampet mute if you live in a place where the neighbors complain or if you're trying to practice in secret so you can surprise loved ones with a performance after months of training. Shhh! Anyway, this is a great item if your looking into picking up the trumpet. It's a great starter. Remember to work on your chops!