Inexpensive (cheap?) bugles

Sitting here in my music store with a few brass repairmen I can guarantee you
playing is not the only problem with these less expensive bugles. If you are
planning on a purchase for a Troop for continued use, I strongly suggest you
get the one that was the official BSA bugle and can be ordered from any music
store that has a Harris-Teller catalog, probably for around $90.

The metal on the inexpensive ones is just that - inexpensive. When it gets
dinged - and brass dings really easily - it bends until it closes off the
inner bore of the instrument. And with a quality horn its not hard to open it
back up and use it again. We've started to see horns from China since some
companies sell them for such an inexpensive price and they literally are so
brittle they cannot be repaired. And they will never be in tune like a regular
horn.

And a good horn - like the one my father bought me when I was 5 and is now in
the hands of a niece some 37 years later - will last forever and a competant
repairman can fix it for about the same length of time. That same model
trumpet is still available, but now it costs over $600. So look at that $90 or
so bugle as a decent investment that will last a long time. (For the record, I
bought the official bugle at 11 and it also is still in use.)

You need to look to the future with things like that, not try to save a few
dollars. Sorry to burst the bubble.

Tom Petrik

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