• The Gearhead Consumer Report

  • How should I test a new trumpet?
  • When I am testing a trumpet, what exactly am I testing it for?

  • What pro quality B flat trumpet should I buy? (revised and updated as of May 2008)
    • Yeah, but what about student trumpets?
  • What flugelhorn should I buy?
  • What piccolo trumpet should I buy?
  • What is a pocket trumpet and why are they so cute?
  • What do I give a trumpet student for Christmas?
  • What is the deal with the Yamaha Silent Brass?
  • What about all the 'regular' practice mutes out there?
• Mouthpieces
  • What is the "correct" placement on the chops for the trumpet mouthpiece?
  • What mouthpiece should I get after my faithful 7C?
  • Should I have the bore/throat of my mouthpiece enlarged?
• Home workshop
  • Is there anything I can do to remove a stuck mouthpiece, without hurting my horn, before I take it to the repairman or music store?
  • How can I make a practice mute out of a Renuzit air freshener?
  • How can I build a (fake but serviceable) baroque trumpet at home?
• History, mostly obscure
  • Whatever happened to Couesnon?
  • Have we mourned adequately the fate of Benge?
  • Who was on the committee that designed the Martin Committee?
• Other odds and ends, mostly odds
  • How do I empty all the water from my trumpet without using the spit valves?
  • Now that I have braces, what do I do?
  • If my trumpet were a car, what make would it be?
• Check out Jim Donaldson's other trumpet page, The Schilke Loyalist

Last revised: October 14, 2008.

© 1999 - 2008 by James F. Donaldson
All rights reserved