New trumpet and travel horn

A few years ago, I had a major milestone birthday, and I decided to celebrate with the purchase of a new trumpet. Prior to this date, I had been exclusively playing the same Bach 37 Stradivarius that I've had since I was a teenager.

The last time I attempted to buy a new trumpet was back in 2004. At that time, I did an in-home trial of a few horns from major brands (Conn, Getzen, Yamaha), but I ended up returning all of them in favor of my Bach. This time around, I wanted something with more character than a major brand, so I went to J. Landress Brass in Midtown Manhattan, to try horns from some of today's top boutique trumpet makers.

I tried over a dozen trumpets, but I kept returning to an Adams A9, which is Adams' version of a classic Martin Committee trumpet. Martin Committee trumpets were played by Miles Davis, Chet Baker, and Dizzy Gillespie (to name a few), so the A9 was a chance to play a modern version, with improved performance. I also really liked a used Del Quadro (I don't remember which model), and a 2024 Bach 190S43. Since I had always wanted to own a Martin Committee, the A9 won in the end.

After a few days of playing the A9 at home, I began to think I had made a mistake. The valves felt too big and bouncy, and the 3rd valve ring kept moving around, despite my attempts to tighten the screw. I wasn't ready to return it, but I knew that it wouldn't become my primary trumpet.

Hoping to re-test the Bach and Del Quadro trumpets, I returned to the music store. The Del Quadro had sold already, but they still had that 2024 Bach. The new Bach sounded better than my old Bach, so I bought that as well.

Despite my goal of buying a "boutique" horn, I wound up with two trumpets that were both made by large manufacturers. For the next year, the 2024 Bach became my primary horn, but I still yearned for something else.

Every year, I travel to Portland, Oregon, to visit family. And every year, on the drive from the airport into the city, I pass by the industrial park where the world's most famous boutique trumpet maker, David Monette, has his trumpet shop. While I've been tempted to stop by the Monette shop during previous visits, I never felt that I was a good enough player to justify such an expensive high-end trumpet. I still feel that way, but after my milestone birthday, I was reminded of the immortal words of Miles Davis, who said, "So What."

No, I didn't get a Monette. I contacted Monette via their website, but they never replied to my request for a visit. Feeling a bit defeated, I searched for other trumpet vendors in the Portland area and I found the Thane Trumpet website.

Thane Trumpets are made by Logan Brown, a former Monette employee, who started making his own trumpets in 2019. Monette makes all of their parts from scratch, a fact that is reflected in their high prices. At Thane Trumpets, Logan makes trumpets with parts sourced from other manufacturers, but during the assembly process, he uses the techniques that he learned while working at Monette. The result is an excellent custom trumpet, at a fairly affordable price point.

After getting in touch with Logan, he invited me to his Portland shop, where I tested a few of his different models. Within a few minutes of playing, I knew that I had finally found my "boutique" trumpet.

As of this writing, I've had my Thane trumpet for 8 months. I absolutely love this horn. It's the most expressive horn that I've ever played. I imagine that the 5" bell has a lot to do with that. It's also a beautiful horn, with the mottled patina of its raw brass finish.

Happy with my Thane, I ended up selling that newer Bach and the Adams A9. I also had my old Bach restored, with a valve replating and third slide tube replacement (to fix compression issues). I now use my old Bach for warmups, and my Thane for end of the day jazz improvisation. I'd use my Thane for everything, but the Bach is a little quieter to play, so it's easier on my ears.

MY NEW TRAVEL HORN

Several years ago, I was traveling extensively, and I wanted a trumpet that I could fit in a backpack. Since that time, I have owned three different pocket trumpets: Charles Colin, Carol Brass, and Kanstul. The Charles Colin was definitely the worst of the three (I sold it years ago). The Carol Brass and Kanstul pocket trumpets are noticeably better, but they also suffer from a stuffy sound and poor intonation in the lower register. I was especially disappointed with the Kanstul, since it shares the same lineage as the Benge pocket trumpet, and I've always heard that the Benge was the best pocket trumpet ever made. To be clear, both the Carol Brass and Kanstul pocket trumpets are decent horns, but I wanted something that rivaled the intonation and clarity of a full-size trumpet, and neither of those horns come close.

Having struck out with pocket trumpets, I expanded my search to cornets. Specifically, ones with a shepherd crook, to take up less space. I began with a cheap Manchester Brass cornet (same factory as Carol Brass). That cornet played a little better than my pocket trumpets, but it sounded even stuffier. About a year after that purchase, I tried a new Yamaha Neo cornet, which I really liked. At $4,000, that was double my budget for a travel horn, so I waited until I found a used Yamaha Zeno cornet on eBay. I had hoped that the Neo and Zeno cornets would sound more or less the same, but the Zeno was much stuffier and I ended up reselling it.

About a year later, during a routine trip to J. Landress Brass, I noticed that they had a 1967 Bach 181 long cornet for sale (longer than a shepherd crook cornet, but shorter than a full-size trumpet). I had never played a Bach cornet, but I figured it was worth a shot. A few notes later, I knew that I had finally found a compact horn that plays as well as a full-size trumpet. And at a sub-$2000 price, I couldn't resist. I've only taken this horn on one trip so far, but it was an absolute joy to play, with a trumpet-like tone and great intonation.