Thomann Blacky Bb-Trumpet

The Blacky is very well made, has great sound and intonation, good materials, smooth mechanics, and it does not hurt that it is a real beauty.

I bought it as my first trumpet. I play other instruments such as saxophone and guitar at good level, and wanted to learn to play the trumpet as an adult. I did not want to spend a fortune before knowing if I would stick to it or not, but I also wanted an instrument that would play well, and not hinder my learning.

The Blacky ended up being perfect for this, and it performs even better than I expected. Maybe the one thing I would recommend is to get a better mouthpiece: the 7C provided in the case is fine to start, but once I found out which kind feels better for me, I purchased a Bach mouthpiece and the difference in sound and ease of playing is noticeable.

The materials and finishing are solid and good, it feels like a more expensive instrument. The gold brushed brass and black matte finishing is beautiful, and seems to be a lot more durable than the cheap lacquer of other instruments of similar price. Gold brass parts that come into contact with skin do change in color, but with a nice "aged" look. Black parts seem to be absolutely impervious to wear so far.

The mechanics are precise and fast. Of course professional trumpets can be even better in this department, but the Blacky feels much better than similar priced instruments. The pistons are smooth and silent (other beginner instruments have a cheap sounding spring click, this one doesn't). Only the piston on the third valve was initially slightly slower (never stuck and still fast to come back, just feeling slightly less smooth), but quickly got on par with the others after some use and oiling.

After half a year of playing it and lot of learning and improvement I am still very satisfied with this instrument. So far, any shortcoming I experienced (for example, poor intonation and control in the low range) turned out to be due to my own playing and not to the trumpet, and got quickly corrected with exercise and guidance from my teacher. On good days, I love the sound I can get out of this trumpet.

I tried out my teacher's Bach Stradivarius, and let him try the Blacky. The Bach Strad is of course on another level, at a price of around 3000€, but I would need to be a much better player than I currently am to feel any big difference. My teacher sounded just amazing on the Blacky too: a pro instrument would sound even better to trained ears, but the Blacky has a very pleasant mellow tone, and ultimately 95% of the tone is in the player, not in the instrument, as long as it does not have obvious defects. Most importantly, the Blacky is a quality instrument, with nothing missing for a student, and nothing hindering learning.

Once I will get much better at playing I might consider buying a more premium trumpet such as a Yamaha or Bach, but right now I don't feel I am really missing anything, and I feel that this trumpet will serve me well for still quite some time. If in a future I would buy a more professional instrument, I would still probably keep the Blacky as a good spare.

Trompette que j'ai comparée avec mon ancienne A.Courtois 216ML. Le son est un peu plus chaud sur la Courtois (cependant un modèle récent équivalent se situe vers 2000EUR), on ne peut pas demander la lune à la Blacky. Seul bémol, au niveau des pistons qui ne reviennent pas toujours rapidement voir pas du tout malgré un bon huilage si l'appui des doigts n'est pas totalement vertical. Problème sur mon modèle ?