Benge's New C Trumpet

As a student of music and a performer, I find that instruments are the number one reason why musicians are labeled as broke. They are expensive, temperamental, and more often than not musicians return them because they no longer fit their needs. As a trumpet player, purchasing instruments is a daily concern. As such, we are always looking out for news of new instruments, and when we get a heads up that a new horn is out, eagerness takes over as we search far and wide to try them out.

My studies at school have been pulling me more into orchestral playing. As non-musicians may not know, this kind of music is written for a trumpet that is fundamentally pitched to C. This is unlike the usual horn that most players use, which is pitched to B-flat. Since my horn is not in C, as I read orchestral music I need to take each note and raise it by a whole step in order to play the correct note. This skill, called transposition, is a necessary skill for any musician. But having a C trumpet provides a nice advantage, as well as different sound.

C trumpets are quite expensive, the upper models running somewhere around $1800 to $2100. The Bach Stradivarius model, made by Conn-Selmer is the ideal horn of choice. Yamaha also makes a nice horn as well, and includes further possibilities from their custom series. Until then, these were my primary choices. But then I caught wind of a new horn from a familiar name, Benge.