What is a very high quality trumpet manufacturing company?

Answer 1

Vincent Bach company is one, though they've had huge quality control problems and I don't know if they're fixed yet. My daughter is a professional Trumpet player and teacher for whom I bought a Bach Strad when she was about 14 and we took turns playing nearly a dozen horns, many still in bags, before we found a "perfect" one, which she later found has a small intonation problem on E2 that's just enough that she has to "lip it up".

Most were simply awful, with many intonation problems, noisy valves, or a more shrill tone than the already shrill tone they tend to have. I darken mine with a 1C Megatone and she darkens hers with a 3C, sometimes Megatone, and by putting more air through a more relaxed embouchure. And I personally use an 11EW when I want shrill and high or want to get more playing time out of my air. Or survive really high notes a long time.

Yamaha is one of my favorites for their consistency, with my favorite being the YTR-2335, sometimes called the "Yamaha/Schilke" as it was made in conjunction with Schilke, who legend has it oversaw the whole operation of this singular hand-made Yamaha.

Then there's Schilke. Schilke horns are handmade by real craftsmen and are considered one of only a few brands so good you can safely by them online and know you'll get a great horn. Ordering a Strad online is risky at best.

Then there's Holton. Student horns, yeah, but everyone (with exceptions like Schilke) makes student horns but Holton also makes the ubiquitous MF-Horn.

And just like microbreweries, there are many, MANY small outfits making outstanding instruments by hand.

I've only encountered a few consistently bad brands. York when I was younger. And now some company in India is cranking out extremely inexpensive horns you see all over eBay. They're very much what you'd expect from, say, a 4-valve piccolo costing $99. The brass equivalent of a kazoo.