My daughter has been playing trumpet for around four years now. She is in a homeschool band that is hosted by a local private college. That got her invited into a local public school honor band for high school students. I believe ten different schools were invited, and out of that, there were twelve trumpet players that included students up to twelfth grade. Using the $199 base model trumpet, she got first chair over all the other trumpet players! She is only in ninth grade (and has braces, lol!). She is a fantastic player, but even with that, it shows this trumpet isn't overhyped. A professional world-class trumpet player (He has a doctorate in music, and I found out some of his recorded music is now the standard other players are compared to) was the trumpet judge for this competition, and he picked this trumpet and player over the others using more expensive instruments.
I also play trumpet, and I use a King Silverstar that retails around $1700. I prefer hers to mine, and I am looking at the professional Jean-Paul trumpet for both us now.
The trumpet has never given us any trouble, and the valves and slides have worked great. The band director that auditioned her played this instrument (he owns an old Bach trumpet he uses professionally), and commented the intonation is good all the way into the higher register. It was also better than another F Schmidt trumpet we were auditioning as an upgrade (Supposedly a $2k trumpet that compares to Bach's, but there is no way). He didn't care for my King trumpet either when he tried it, lol! :)
Don't let the name throw you off. Quality doesn't require a lot of brand recognition or markup. Good job Jean-Paul!
