Jupiter JTR-410 a fine trumpet?

Hi All,

First of all, I'd like to introduce myself as this is my first post in "woodwinds and brass". My name is Alex, I'm a student of trumpet from Spain. I post at the "lesson loft" from time to time, which is helping my studying a lot as I don't have a teacher.

The trumpet I have at present is the first one I've ever had, I got it something like 5 years ago when I started and I'm very happy with it. It's a Jupiter JTR-410.

The sound is fine and the pistons are smooth. However, as I don't get the opportunity to try any expensive trumpets, I'm wondering if maybe a better trumpet would be better for studying, in other words, if my begginer instrument is probably slowing down my learning for any reason, or making it more difficult for me to reach high notes or anything like that.

My present range is 2.5 octaves, Gb to C or maybe slightly higher, say D, although I never practice higher than C, I use the mouthpiece which came with the trumpet, a Jupiter 7C. A while ago I asked a trumpeter about this and he was surprised that I had been studying with this trumpet for so long. I didn't get the chance to ask him precisely why.

I'd like you to share your experience when you switched from this trumpet or a similar one (Yamaha does a similar one I think) to a professional grade instrument.

Many thanks!

Ack!

I'm on a lunch break now, but in about 4 hours I can give you some better advice. Suffice to say, for now, that your Jupiter is a student/intermediate trumpet. Jupiter is good but I personally wouldn't consider them to be professional.

I'll go over some things when I get the time on trumpet/mouthpieces that you may like quite a bit!

OK...

I can't find ANYTHING on that model of horn from Jupiter, but judging by the numbering its probably based on Yamaha's older 4310 trumpets. I played a Yamaha 4325, the followup to the 4310, for a semester. Very nice trumpet all-around.

It is, however, still a student/intermediate trumpet. Horns is this range are not designed to make double high Cs easy, and many tend to be a little squirrely on intonation.

What I find surprising is that you are still using the 7C mouthpiece. As a serious trumpet player, you may want to start looking to find mouthpieces that suit you better than the 7C. Generally speaking, a shallower cup will give you an easier high range, while a deeper cup will give you superior tone. A shallow cup with a big backbore (thats the hole in the mouthpiece) can give you a bit of both. My recommendation is to find a width that you like, and a rim shape. From there, vary only the cup depth or backbore. Schilke and Yamaha make this easy; they use the same numbering system and the numbers tend to follow each other better than the Bach system (a 7C is the same WIDTH as a 3C, with a completely different shape).

Changing the mouthpiece will likely lead to bigger changes than changing your horn, and for the price of a new horn you can try a LOT of mouthpieces!

If you are happy with how your horn plays, your tone, and your range, and if you don't have to fight the horn, I see no reason to get a new one. If you intend to play upper-register very well, a horn designed to play there would likely be a major benefit.

I see you live in Madrid. How far is Valencia from Madrid? Stomvi's factory is located in Valencia, I believe, and Stomvi makes some very fine horns. I believe King Kashue plays one of their top-line models, if you want to send him a PM. You should be able to find Yamaha trumpets easily enough. The Xenos are basically Bach Stradivarius knock-offs, the Professional Series are based on Schilke designs. Play these horns and anything else you can, and see if a new horn actually makes anything easier/better. And take your own horn to a shop, and try out a few different mouthpieces to see if any fit you better.

It sounds like you are coming along well. After 10 years I am only now able to consistently play a high C, and nothing much above that! Unless you intend to play Brandenburg 2 or Maynard licks, thats really about as high as you need to go.

FWIW, I'm selling my old intermediate Bach TR200 this summer, as I ordered a Kanstul 1600 Wayne Bergeron. Sometimes a horn can limit you, which I found out when I played that Yamaha. Try a few out, and if you don't notice much difference I say keep your horn. If you can't find a mouthpiece you like better, keep using the 7C! I've heard that one of the top orchestral players in the US, maybe Philip Smith, uses a 7C. No one tells him how to play!

Hi Sunburstbasser,

Thank you so much for your post. Your description of what to look for in a mouth piece is tremendously useful and interesting. On a less serious note, thanks for calling me "a serious trumpet player", I should start behaving during rehearsals and gigs now

Here are a few pics of the trumpet in question, it comes as shown here, with mouthpiece and hard case:

Valencia is about 300 km (or 180 miles) from Madrid, good thing is I go there from time to time to visit relatives.

I'm not looking to reach very high notes particularly, as a student I'm more into trying to improve my all round skills.

I thought that the great jazz players, even those not particularly interested in high notes, had a broader range, for instance what follows is part of a description of Miles Davis' style (not that I think I will play like him ever but great players are always good inspiration regardless of how good or bad you play I think):

One of the things I find difficult about playing high notes (apart from the obvious hard push that makes it difficult to practice there for long) is that when playing a scale you frequently need to go from one note to the next one with the same fingering and that makes it difficult to coordinate mouth and fingers (it happens much for notes one tone apart), that's probably what I find most interesting about practicing up there.

Thank you!

If you see here:

http://solomonsmusic.net/insrange.htm

It says that the professional range is F#3 to D6 and amateur is A3 to Bb5. It doesn't specify wether if those notes are in C "concert" or transposed to our Bb notation, but from the ranges and the way that the chart is arranged, I'm certain that the notes are in our Bb (note that the same range is shown for many different trumpets, cornets and so on, and the same happens with all the different saxes, one range suits all).

So if that's at all correct that'd mean I'm already a professional, hurray!! (Never seen any money from music though!)

Cheers,

Alex

If you can play a C above the staff cleanly, consistently, with good tone, you have all the range you will need for practially anything you'll see in an orchestral/classical setting. Anything higher is usually meant to be played on D, Eb, etc. or even piccolo trumpet, such as Bachs Brandenburg Concerto 2 or some of Torrelli's stuff.

When talking about broad range, Miles is only the TIP of the iceburg! Many of the scales he favored are generally just one or two half-steps apart from each other. That, and he was THE great innovator of jazz! Obviously in a career spanning from the 40s to his death almost 50 years later, and single-handedly giving the world Cool Jazz, Modal Jazz, and Fusion, that little article doesn't touch what he did in that aspect!

I think with Miles, the depth of his music goes far beyond just trumpet playing, as his compositions were much more than vehicles for improvisation like much of the bebop he was so influenced by.

At any rate, there should be some good brass shops in Madrid, and you should spend some time playing a few Yamaha and Bach horns, and whatever else you can find. Try calling Stomvi before you next head to Valencia and scheduling a factory tour, or ask if you can play a few of their horns (bring your mouthpiece!).

And by "serious," I just mean that you seem to actually want to be a trumpeter, something many people don't try for many years (like me). Trumpeters are NEVER supposed to behave though! Just always remember:

"Would you like your hair parted on the left, or on the right?"