As a complete novice, the purchase of this trumpet was probably a foolish extravagance and counter to all the advice I have read on the internet (advocating a student model to start with). To me, it looks good, plays bad and represents promise of better days, but I did lend it to a trumpet playing friend for a week. She is a brill big band player and she really liked it. As good as she is, after 15 years of playing, she has only just swapped her student horn for a second hand yamaha xeno.