Testing Tristar Cornet

Date: 16 April 2006

picture by Tristar, ©

Our Tristar Cornet, Model TR 06

picture by Tristar, ©

We have read all posts regarding 'Piccolo trumpets from India' on the Quicktopic1 discussion space because we were planning to buy one Tristar TR 06 cornet for our 10 years old son.

Our objective was to buy a new or used Bb cornet with a reasonable quality, good sound and ability to stay in tune with the Brass Band and all this for the next 10 years. Our son is playing 2,5 years in a Brass Band with the name: Crescendo in Steenwijk, The Netherlands. http://www.steenwijkonline.nl/hobby/crescendo/devereniging.html
In our area the BB has very good notes and has won several contests. The BB director is a professional (university qualified) player, teacher and BB director who leads several brass bandsat this time. Up to now our son is playing a Besson, owned by the BB.

Myself, I can not play any instrument, however I am a Bachelor in fine mechanics and in telecomunication (electronics).

What bothers me about the discussion on Quicktopic2 is that many people claim to be pro's but refuse to play a so called cheap instruments from the far east.
Mr. Corey as an example has never touched an instrument made in India but knows for sure that they are bad, just because Schilke, Kanstful, Yamaha, etc make instruments, not money (????). Just Rick, Brad, Brian, Bob, and Bill (and some others in a way) stuck to the discussion without falling into their own belief without knowing facts.

Let's go back to the beginning which is: piccolo trumpets from India.

Well, we bought the Tristar TR 06 cornet.
Payed on 27-03-06 at 23.16 hrs, arrived 04-04-06 at 11.30 hrs. It arrived undamaged, well packed, without any fingerprints/stains and exactly as described, inclusive case and a real 24K gold plated mouth piece 7C for trumpet (it dit not fit the cornet, was my mistake, a trumpet is not a cornet).
We payed US$ 91,99 for the lot, inclusive package, handling and transportation. Tristar payed INR 1400 (=US$ 31,50) for transportation (which was stated on the package).

We have the opportunity to compare the Besson Cornet s/n 449686 silver plated and the Tristar TR 06 s/n 0263.
We will not mention known facts about the Besson but instead focus on the Tristar.
We did not perform a chemical analisis of the material.

The Cornet:

The Tristar TR 06 is a brass instrument which is nikkel plated. The plating is very well done. The inside of the valves is not plated and so is the inside of the tubing (except bell).
The bell diameter is exactly 4,5 inch.
The total length is 13,5 inch (with mouthpiece inserted). Tristar claims 14,5 inch but this is the total length of the instrument + the total length of the mouthpiece.
The TR 06 is 35 (metric) grams heavier than the Besson. This is exactly the weight of the arrangement on the sliding valve (which the Besson lacks).
The thickness of the tubing (and bell) is 0,017 inch (Besson 0,019), measured where possible and at several places.
Stamping of the brand on the horn is uneven (stamping-pressure difference), not exactly in line with the instrument and the stamping is too heavy. It looks cheap. This is a pitty because nice stamping increases the 'quality look' of the instrument dramaticaly.
Stamping of the numbers in the piston-shaft is not very well, they are readable but poor. Stamping in piston-shaft #3 is upside down.
Stamping of the numbers on the valves (outside, see photo below) is good but vertically and horizontally not completely in line with the instrument.

No magnetic materials are observed except: the spring of the spitvalve, bolt holding spitvalve and the bolt on sliding valve. Springs on the pistons are non-magnetic.
The bolt (1/8 inch thread) on the sliding valve is steel plated with chrome (colordifference). We had preferred a stainless steel bolt. Due to strength reasons a brass (plated) bolt is not advisable. We actually changed the bolt for a home-made Stainless (ANSI 316) bolt with M4 thread (photo below).

The (lock)nut (Uk thread but close to M2 thread) on the bolt holding the spitvalve is made of brass and is not plated. The bolt (UK thread but close to M2 thread) holding the spitvalve should have been 2 MM shorter (looks nicer). We changed both for a brass M3 thread with stainless steel nuts, see photo below.

The thread on the upper and lower side of the valves could be improved. The initial first groove is not nicely machined. If care is taken during screwing the piston-nuts (and! unscrewing)(and nuts on the lower part of the valves) there are no problems to expect. We had preferred a different kind of thread.
The nuts on the lower part of the valves have an air-escape hole. During quick playing of the pistons a whistling noise is observed from these holes. These holes are 4 mm and should be 5,5 mm. Also the sharp edges (due to drilling) are not machined away. We actually widened the holes to 5,5 mm and the behaviour of the pistons increased very much the whistling noise is gone (see photo below).

The three pistons can be interchanged in the three valves without noticing change of play (this after playing the instrument for abt. 20 hours). This means that the measurement tolerance of pistons and valves is very good. The pistons are well machined and smooth. The position of the piston holes compared to the holes in the valves is good.
We removed the piping and pressure tested every valve, including piping. No air leakage in the valves and piping was observed. A very small leakage was observed at the entry of the mouthpiece. This was solved by putting polishing paste on an old mouthpiece and twisting the mouthpiece many times in the cornet. Also a very small airleakage was observed at the spitvalve. This was solved by bending the spring of the spitvalve a little so that the spring pressure increased.
Finishing of the brass washer-plate at the lower side of the spring on the piston is far too rough. Washers are made with unsharp tools. This should be improved.
Reinforcement between piping is very good, they are at the right places, backing plates are used.
Welding of the several parts are very nice.
Machining of tube-end where the mouthpiece enters is too rough. Risk of air passing by.
Reinforcement of the tubing where the mouthpiece enters the cornet is very good. You can hammer the mouthpiece in without widening the tubing. (approx. 0,11 inch wall thickness!). This unlike the Besson where the tubing and reinforcement at this place is too weak.
The machining of the mouthpiece is nice and so is the plating. The plating of the mouthpiece has survived (no brass evidence under plating yet) a couple of hundred times mounting of the mouthpiece into the cornet (pushing and twisting it in firmly). This is very promising for the plating of the whole instrument.
The inside of the instrument was far from clean when it arrived but only dirt due to machining. Cleaning with a mild soap and a brush solved this easily.
It takes some time to play-in the valves. After 8 hours of playing the valves run smoothly. The first 4 hours we used oil. The next 4 hours without oil. Now we use very little oil.

The case:
It is a Samsonite-beauticase like case in which the cornet fits nicely. There is a handle on top to carry the case. There is ample space for cleaning rags and other small stuff. The mouthpiece is stored separately in the case. The case is opened with a 2-way zipper which can be locked with a padlock (not supplied). The case will not survive 20 years of use but when handled with care (which should always be done with a case containing an instrument) it can serve many years of normal use.

>From the mechanical way, our objectives are very well fulfilled.

Soundtest and playing:

The cornet was played by the brassband director (See top). His comments are: It's a reasonable instrument. The price is very good. The mouthpiece supplied is not deep enough (shallow cup), it is designed for Eb cornet. It is OK to practice and play in the band with this instrument.
The cornet was put in tune with the other cornets (5 players) without problems. We had to pull the first slide out for about 10-11 mm (0,43 inch)
We changed the mouthpiece for a Denis Wick 4B mouthpiece (medium cup, borrowed from the Besson) and the sound improved to a very nice sound.
The centre of gravity is very nice according to my son.
The valves run smoothly after several hours playing.
My son has still the choice between the Besson and the Tristar but is playing the Tristar only up to now.

At 29th of April 2006 we tested the Cornet with a Arion UM-70 Chromatic Auto Tuner.

We had to pull out the first slide for 11 mm in order to have the instrument perfectly in tune over the whole range.
Nothing had to be changed on the other slides.

Final Conclusion:

Tristar claims: Ideal for young beginners as it is easier to hold, with its centre of gravity much closer to the player.
Tristar claims: The “TRISTAR” cornet offers great value for money.
Tristar claims: It has a characteristic warm, mellow tone, which can be distinguished from the more penetrating sound of the trumpet.

Claim 1 and 2 are absolutely correct.
Claim 3 is not correct with the mouthpiece supplied, the cornet sounds too sharp. With a deeper mouthpiece mounted (f.i. Denis Wick 4B) the claim is absolutely correct.

We cleaned the instrument after arrival, cleaned again and again after playing and this totally took about 1 hour of labour. With any new instrument this can be considered as normal. Basically the only extra we really had to do was drilling of the 4 mm holes to 5,5 mm and this took 10 minutes.

Our objective was to buy a new or used Bb cornet with a reasonable quality, good sound and ability to stay in tune with the Brass Band and all this for the next 10 years. We fully believe that our objectives are fulfilled and are very satisfied with the instrument.

All around the WWW it is claimed that instruments from India are scrap.
We can not judge this but we do know that the Tristar TR 06 with s/n 0263 is a good instrument for it's purpose. It is made in India.

My son has not yet deceided which instrument he will finally play with but we are looking forward to purchase the TR02 or TR05 from Tristar lateron.

Best Regards,

Ulko

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