We review an $800 Eb Soprano Cornet purchased from Ebay for just $800, and even compare it to a Yamaha YCR6610s professional line cornet. Item listing: www.ebay.com/itm/134062905126
I have a pair of Chinese made Eb instruments- a cornet and a trumpet. Bought them around 20 years ago, only had a few minor quibbles. The haters who say they don't like Chinese-made instruments generally haven't the first clue what they're talking about. Speaking from EXPERIENCE, they started out like Jupiter brass, with bad lacquer, but have steadily improved over the years, and are now up there with the best. In general they have excellent valves, second to none. I've had Kanstul and Yamaha instruments with awful valves. Come to think of it, Yamaha was like that in their early days- bad lacquer, etc. A lot of the Chinese horns are made by Jinbau but are sold as stencils (someone else's name is engraved on them).
Check out part 2! My only quibble after nearly a year playing it is it is more difficult to play this horn in tune compared to that Yamaha. It's extremely finicky, and overall harder to play in tune with an ensemble. If you back off on the breath support even a touch, you're a quarter step flat, and the tuning slide doesn't have enough travel to compensate, like if you're starting to get tired. The Yamaha was much more forgiving. Anything using the second valve is a tad sharper, too. It's compensate-able, but it's work. My ear has gotten a lot better, though. I'm strongly considering lopping a quarter inch off the leadpipe and 3rd valve entry pipe to get some extra travel on the main tuning slide to see if I can tune it a tad sharp to give myself some headroom.
I wonder if you put a little valve lapping compound on those upper valve caps and running them in and out if it would smooth them out (though making a bit of a mess to clean up)
The video was recorded with the built-in microphone on a point-and-shoot, so don't put much on that kind of nuance. It may be the recording or even the compression in the audio codec.
Maybe, but after playing a concert on this thing, I can say there's not much that would justify dropping $4K on a Yamaha, especially for somebody new to the ensemble. These things really lower the barrier to entry for brass band participation. Maybe it'll fall apart in a few years? I dunno. But if somebody was thinking about joining an ensemble and the barrier was cost for the instrument, these Chinese horns are a great option. If they end up sticking with it, then a Pro horn becomes a possibility down the road. But I wouldn't be able to tell somebody this thing was junk. It's very much not.
