Blog

A Trevor Jones and CarolBrass adventure! A long time ago I played a cornet for a few years as a high school student in our school band. The distraction of girls, motorcycles and constant negative peer pressure sadly caused me to push the cornet aside (Years later I now realise how stupid that was!). Just a year ago, a sequence of close coincidences, often described as a strange bedfellow with conspiracy, led to me picking up a trumpet and I was instantly hooked. A Yamaha YTR01, a Kanstul 601 USA Besson and a 1947 Olds Standard later, not to mention blowing on a classic Conn CONNstellation, a Smith Watkins, a Yamaha Xeno and a Jupiter XO, I contacted Trevor Jones with the desire of purchasing a brand new horn of my own. Balancing my financial limitations with the information I’d gathered from reading countless trumpet reviews, I settled on a CarolBrass as the way to go. Every CarolBrass review I read was positive, to the point of glowing in most cases, from all manner of folk among which many were clearly professional musicians, including the legendary YouTube Horn Trader himself. My music interests are Jazz and blues so I wanted a Dutch Jazz Smoke. That was my weapon of choice and nothing else would do! [This is not available in UK but Bruce’s trumpet is very, very, very close - Tom] So calling Trevor Jones put me in contact with Tom who proved to be most helpful and impressively knowledgable about the instruments he sold there. After a detailed consultation about my wishes and helpful advice from Tom, the horn was ordered with a delivery time of 10 to 12 weeks as the horn was being made to order. CarolBrass make all their horns to order so as a customer, you’re not buying something that has potentially been stored for a long time before shipping. [This is true but we also have a healthy stock of some of the standard (and not so standard) models available to try and to buy!] Tom kept me informed of the horns progress by email from time to time and it was shipped to me by courier, safely packed as soon as it arrived in the UK. The horn is extremely well made and the satin lacquer is flawless. The compression of the stainless valves is so good, a satisfyingly loud pop can be heard from all three when moving the slides etc. I’ve found playing it consistently so well balanced from the pedal tones up through the staff to C above (As far as I can get at the moment but todays squeaks are tomorrows notes!) It just feels much easier to play than my other horns. The smokey tone can be pushed to a louder brighter one if needed and this horn looks and feels as good as the ones I blew with twice the price tag. So to conclude, I simply need to say well done Tom and all the team at Trevor Jones for a superb quality of service and well done to CarolBrass for a superb quality of product. Bruce Dobson CarolBrass CTR-8770L-PSM-Bb-SL Trumpet

Trying instruments and mouthpieces before buying is always a good idea if possible. We have recently started to take bookings to use our testing room on Saturdays - please contact us to arrange your time. We are not currently taking bookings during the week and will continue to operate on a "first come - first served" basis. When trying any new equipment it is best to keep the other elements the same as you are used to. With this in mind, please bring your current instrument/mouthpiece/reeds etc to allow for a fair comparison - it's never good getting home to discover your new mouthpiece simply doesn't work well with your instrument! Bringing some sheet music is also a good idea, particularly for younger players. Help us to help you! What are your needs? What is your budget? What do you currently play on and why do you want/need to change? We can't tell you definitively what will work for you but we can help you to narrow your search.