Re-learning trumpet to play in a community big band and had a good trumpet in the attic. There are a few pieces with flugel parts, but hey, do I really know if this is going to work out to justify a 0-1000 horn ? Nope.

At just over 0 (9), this will allow me to dip my toes into playing flugel again. If things work out and I outgrow the horn in a year, no problem, it was 0. If it breaks in a year, ditto. And it may just be sufficient for 2-3 pieces from a 40 song book, if it can play in tune and doesn’t spontaneously disassemble itself into its component parts.

Now to the horn. Came with an OK case, the inside is formed foam, covered by cheap velour. Does the job sufficiently, and I’ll probably get a flugel/trumpet combo case to haul both pieces anyway.

Came with a mouthpiece (description was silent on this), appears to be a clone of your basic student grade Yamaha mp. Sufficient for initial work, will accept a Yamaha taper for future reference (would also have been nice in the description so you can order a mouthpiece at the same time if so inclined).

Finish – you can see some swirls in the polish before they applied the lacquer. Not a perfect mirror, but hey – 0. Buy a used horn and you’ll have finish issues, too. Again, sufficient given the investment and purpose. Looks good from arms length away.

The valves – 1 and 3 were perfect out of the box. Slick, positive, fast. #2 was sluggish coming up. Tried oiling, wiping. Still sluggish.

Was on the path to a home-valve lap job with toothpaste (not willing to drop money on a repair, nor let them laugh me out of the shop), and decided to first give the valve and the tube a good scrubbing. Got out the shotgun cleaning rod and ran a few patches through – lots of grey on the patch. I expected this, and should have planned to give the horn a bath anyway. Has to be manufacturing oils left behind and who knows how long it was in storage after manufacture. Ran the 12-gauge bronze brush thru a dozen times slowly, made sure it cleared out the guide channel – clean as a whisker. More patches, then I couldn’t find my shotgun mop so I made a “snake/tampon” of twisted lint-free shop towel and pushed it thru. Nice and clean.

On to the valve barrel. Near the top on one side there were still some machine marks from the grinding/fitting. The grain of these marks was across the barrel, and rough to the touch. Hit it ever so lightly with some 600 grit (would have user 800 or higher if I had it close to hand) sandpaper to polish – just lightly brushed it up and down the barrel in this area only – not taking any material, just polishing and setting any surface texture in the same direction as the piston movement. Like polishing a feed ramp, less is more, here. Dozen or so strokes, smooth as a baby’s bottom. Wiped and washed, then oiled and into the horn. Voila ! Nice fast valve like the others. I’ll keep an ear out for any compression loss, maybe switch to a heavier oil if that shows up.

Nice tone, nice enough for my setting, anyway, tucked away in the ensemble. Looks like this will serve it’s purpose. Very pleased. If it can play in tune with itself, that is.

Note: this is marked “Hawk”, and there is another horn listed by that brand on Amazon for 0 or so. This is a different model – this has a third valve tuning slide that the other lacks, and for what it’s worth, there is a section of the tube that’s finished in a rose brass. Also, this horn is a .460 bore (trumpet like), the other is .430 (closer to flugel standard). For my money, go for the cheaper horn – you either go with the disposable cheap option that might work out, or spend enough to get more of a known quantity. YMMV.

If you can tolerate a little risk and imperfection, and are handy and know just a little about horn maintenance (or have a web browser and access to the google where you can learn), this is a good “nothing to lose” horn, and will certainly tide me over until I spot a good used horn if and when I need to upgrade. If you want perfect out of the box, no risk, pony up the 0+ for a Jupiter.

You never would see a flugelhorn at this price and to be specific 0 plus shipping. I been looking for a while and the cheapest one are 0. Great sound, and beautiful two tones color. The only thing is a little heavy, but nothing will beat the price.

i was really pleased with this horn,after playing it for a few weeks.it had a beautiful tone for a not so expensive horn.after playing the trumpet and converting to the flugel horn it made me more than pleased.