Startone STR 25 Bb-Trumpet

It's been about two and a half years since I bought this instrument now, so I figured I should revisit my review now that I have some more experience playing trumpet in general, and this instrument in particular. To make this easy, I'll be dividing this review into two sections.

The Good:
The valves are surprisingly pleasant for the price, and are still holding up just as well now as they did when I first bought the instrument. And it has a quite pleasant tone for being so cheap. It's a very pretty trumpet too, and the lacquer has held up quite nicely.

The case is pretty decent as well, at least after I tucked the included white gloves in the channel for the lead pipe in the top. If you don't, your trumpet will wobble around a bit in the case which doesn't seem like it would be too healthy in the long run.

Third tuning slide works fantastic, slides quick and smooth with very little resistance. Compression is quite okay for being a cheap instrument, though the third slide will droop if you place your instrument bell-down on a trumpet stand.

The Bad:
The slotting and intonation is.. not great. Open C below staff is a struggle to hit accurately, as a beginner this was incredibly discouraging, but after trying out a Yamaha YT3335 at a music store I found out it wasn't me, so I just kept at it.

Though the valves were and still are quite good (Yes, really!), the valve caps were initially quite stuck. But squirting some valve oil on the threads helped a lot once I managed to remove them.

The main tuning slide can sort out some of the problem notes, but the relative intonation isn't great so you'll need a good embouchure and know your way around the first and third valve tuning slides to compensate if you are going to record or play with others.

Speaking of the first and third valve slides, there was some black gunk on them initially, which cleaned off fine after a few rounds of giving it a bath and gentle scrub-down. I mentioned before that the third slide still feels fine, but the first... doesn't. Though after giving it a bit of steel wool polishing, which I doubt does any favours for the seal, it slides a little bit more freely.

The main tuning slide was initially quite difficult to move, but some slide grease and a drop or two of oil helps. Think I ended up having to give the main slide a round of steel wool polish as well, but now it moves smoothly without excessive force being needed.

Why should you buy it?
If you need a really really cheap trumpet, it's not a bad deal for the money. You could definitely get a better instrument used for just a little bit more money, but in covid-19 times finding a trustworthy seller can be scary. If you don't mind saving for a bit longer though, I would highly recommend doing so. This instrument is not an easy trumpet to play.