OK, so I've played trombone for several years. I have a really nice Bach 42bog. This doesn't sound anything like my nice horn.

But I'm teaching my kids how to play. I'm not going to hand over my nice trombone. I have more sense than that. I know what I did to my trombone when I was a kid...

These play pretty well. They're cheap. And my kids have dropped the slide several times and I haven't had to take it to a repair shop to get the dings taken out of the slide. So they're pretty durable.

One thing - getting the slide to move well was a bit tricky. I didn't like how the slide oil was doing, so I used trombotine. Works great.

Company reships returned- defective product.
Mine was labeled "SQUEAKS" tag, and they re-shipped it to us anyway.
Buy, from someone else.

Better than renting for my 10 yr old son. First one came with smudged silkscreened black logo on the purple bell. Amazon promptly sent us a new instrument in perfect condition. The slide is a bit noisy but I'm told that it will get better with time. The music instructor says this instrument will be adequate until maybe 8th or 9th grade band at which time we'll purchase real brass horn (if he still plays). This horn paid for itself in 3 or 4 months of saved rental expenses. Note: Many trombone players are not thrilled with the plastic mouthpiece so they buy a traditional metal mouthpiece, which works fine with this plastic horn. That's what we did. Finally, fun colors available for these plastic instruments really up the "cool" factor.

My Son was 1st chair in H.S. and was so sad he wouldn't be able to play after graduation. A brass piece was not in my budget so, I went with this choice. We were both amazed at the sound! He said he needed to play to loosen up the slide a bit but that was a good thing! We admit this isn't a complete replacement for the real McCoy BUT it's great for practicing and I would think a great "training" piece before making that huge investment! I highly recommend!

I'm not a trombone player myself, and it was my son who I ordered this for. When it arrived we did a quick comparison between this pBone and his brass Yamaha. I was really amazed at the tone of the pBone. I was expecting it to sound noticeably muted, but it had a nice ring to it. The brass can be played to louder volumes and rings out more, but the pBone is plenty loud when it needs to be. The best part is that my son now has 2 instruments so he can practice more at home and doesn't have to transport an instrument back and forth from high school every day. He is not allowed to use this instrument for marching band, but the kids do use them for pep band, and blue is the school color. We could feel that the slide is smoothing out now that he has been playing it for a while, and while it was pretty noisy at first it has gotten quieter as it has smoothed out/worn in. He has not used any lubricant on the slide because we wanted it to wear in, and the manufacturer says lube is not necessary. He has also had to run some cleaning patches through it and wipe the internal slide tubes since the wearing in produces some fine black bits/dust, but we expected this. The included plastic mouthpiece is listed as an "11C" and he has always played a 12C. He said he didn't notice any real difference in the feel of the cup, but we ordered a metal Blessing 12C here on Amazon and he prefers that mouthpiece to the plastic one. The included soft case is rather thin and cheap, and offers no real protection to the pBone. He had a soft backpack style case that he uses with his Yamaha, and now he uses it for the pBone. The finish is also a bit uneven, but we waxed it up an gave it a nice shine and it actually looks really good. One of the things he also loves about the pBone is the weight. He is not only able to practice more often, but he is able to practice longer. All in all just a great purchase. He is able to practice more, he has a fun instrument for pep band, and he has become a better player.