I neeed a intermediate quality trumpet that won`t cost me more than $450. I was looking at the brand Giardinelli GTR 512 and the Blessing XL. I would appreciate some advice on these trumpets.

My son has owned a Blessing ML-1 for a couple years. Excellent trumpet for the price with a great sound and feel. How the XL compares to that, I cannot say, but for a couple hundred more, you would have something that goes way beyond a student instrument and would last you a long time.

See the thread "Trumpet to get?"

http://www.8notes.com/f/29_105373.asp

Cheers!
Aaron N.

i say Getzen! i reccomend it to anybody looking to buy a trumpet because they are great no matter what level of playing and you can get very good deals on them.

Is the Giardinelli GTR 512 any good at all?

Tara,

I believe Giardinelli`s horns are made by EM Winston, which means simply "No." Further, I believe any horn that is advertised as a "professional" instrument for $300 is a piece of crap.

You would be far better off getting a Blessing ML-1 or Yamaha 2335 or 4320 from eBay. There are other great horns to consider too, like the Conn 1050B and some of the old Kings. A Bach TR200 or Omega is also a great buy. A rule of thumb is that if you want the best horn possible for X amount of dollars, you should buy a used mainstream horn. It`s like buying a new car - say you want a BMW 328i and have $30k to spend. Do you want the low end 328i with no options, small engine and weak suspension or the 328i with a turbo, nice rims and sport supsension with 10k miles on it? I`d generally go for the slightly used one; better deal.

If you want a great horn at a great price, try ebay. If you`re worried about buying through there, email me the auction(s) you`re thinking about and I`ll try to help you figure out if it`s a legit deal and all. I`ve done more than 1000 transaction on eBay and have had only a few problems, which were all resolved.

Cheers!
Aaron N.
AaronNorlund@hotmail.com

How about the Blessing XL?

Need a good trumpet and a good price, than I can tell you this. When I was searching for a new trumpet I found a very big shop in Belgium. They have also a webshop where the proces are cheap.
So, I send an support-ticket to the guys of boxymusic (that`s te name of that webshop) with al my questions.
They helped me a lot and were so friendly. They gived me a very good price that I decided to buy there.

So, give it a try

http://www.boxymusic.com/news.lasso?id=1783