The Dillon C Trumpet, my Opinion

[Trumpet_Martinez]

Hello everyone,

Much like many of you I am always looking for a good bang for your buck horn, whether out of curiosity or necessity. I went out on a limb and purchased the Dillon Music C trumpet and wanted to give my review of the horn and what I noticed out of the box.

Brand new out of the box comes in a cheap Chinese case with white gloves. Throw the gloves away and move onto the horn. At first glance this is a Bach Copy horn, the casing feels good, the overall heft is a little light, the bell feels generic light 229, Bach style hex spit valves, aluminum trim. Real silver plate.

Pros: Affordable, good quality for a college student. Real silver plate. Long third valve slide. A poor man's Bach.

Cons: Casing threads are awful, I'm worried the valve caps will get cross threaded. Some fit and finish issues with the machined parts. Slides and valves are a little stiff. Receiver is terrible and going to leave a nasty ring on your mouthpiece. Somewhat stuffy sound.

My fixes: I'm a horn tinkerer and I bought this with the mindset of overhauling it and replacing the leadpipe anyways as a gift for my girlfriend. Lapping the valves and slides, sudo valve alignment, and replaced the leadpipe with a Blackburn leadpipe I had on hand.

This horn opened up, intonation is great. Valves feel amazing, and the blow is good. I would put this up against any Bach with those changes.

With all that said, I'd say this is a great horn for anyone who needs a C in a pinch. With some modifications it can play like a pro horn, but I have a suspicion that ACB's new C trumpet line likely comes from the same manufacturer, but I believe Trent and his crew likely spend lots of time tweaking and fixing those issues before the horn gets to you. Although the professional horn will always be a better option, the quality of copies has gotten better and is starting to be a close second. This is a good horn if you do your own instrument repair, or have a tech you really like. Good candidate to build your own parts trumpet just needs some work.

I will try to post some pictures later.
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