I bought this and i want to say the delivery was ahead of schedule and the instrument arrived undamaged. Out of the box, the sound was pretty good. I used to play, and while on lockdown thought I'd pick the instrument up again. The tone is a bit brighter than my old cornet, but not unpleasant or tinny. It looks good and sounds decent and would be a great practice instrument for someone just picking up the cornet or wanting something they could bang around with. So value to dollar I'm giving it about a 4 out of 5. That being said, There were a few issues.

First the red is paint/lacquer not electroplate. So over time you may experience the paint chipping around areas if you're not gentle. Also the paint job while clean on the visible parts was a little sketchy in other areas. For instance, the paint covers the valve threads, which makes it a pain to get the covers off for maintenance. And they didn't clean up the overpaint on the valve cover areas so when I opened them up I had lots of small debris to clean from the valve edges. Not a showstopper just annoying.

Second, The second valve cap on top was cross threaded so it does not sit properly and binds a little. This also causes the key to sit slightly higher than the other. Once again not a big deal for a practice instrument.

Third, and this was annoying and has to be corrected before any thing can be considered playable by my standard, The spit valve was mounted and painted properly, but they either didn't ensure the weld was clear of the spit hole or they didn't drill the spit hole in the first place. On a horn with only one spit valve to begin with, this is annoying because I have to get it drilled properly before I can play for any length of time.

Almost done, Valve 2 sticks no matter how much slide oil you put on it. I think the keyway doesn't have enough clearance. This causes the valve to bind a little so it doesn't return to position quickly and fully every time the key is depressed. This also has to be addressed before playing anything other than single notes and slow scales.

My last complaint is that I don't know what type of slide grease they used to cover the tuning slides, but it's thick and gummy.

Now that I've had it for a few days, I've decided to take it in to the shop to get the minor issues corrected, that's going to cost another $60 or so where I get my instruments serviced. I want to be clear, unless you're buying a professional grade instrument, these types of issues are to be expected, and every horn I've used had to have an initial servicing to get it to peak condition before I could use it for anything serious.

In the end, with a little love, patience and a few extra dollars, this would be a great first instrument if you were looking to avoid spending too much before you were sure you wanted to play cornet. Even with the added servicing cost, you'll still be ahead in the long run over pretty much any other cornet I looked at.

Daughter loves it! Sounds great, looks cool.

I have a cornet from these folks that was more expensive - BUT - had many flaws in construction. This one, for almost half is well made. Ok - not a Bach, not a Getzen, Levante...etc; but this one is a nicely made cornet for the money. Suspecting an air leak from the spit valve as you need a lot of air to get a tone out. I've ordered replacement pads, so will see how it goes. NOTE: this type of instrument from these folks need to have the slide grease cleaned off and some decent grease applied. Their grease is too thick and makes the slides too stiff.

i'm not a professional player although i've played piano in restaurants and hotels, and i've only had one cornet before, so i can't make a proper judgement.....but..for a student instrument, i was pleasantly surprised at how well this instrument played....for the price, it is impossible to beat, and the owners or shippers, are very accessible and courteous, if contacted.....it's amazing how they can make such a seemingly well made instrument so reasonably priced.....it's now oct 2019....and i thought i'd better warn people that if you want to change the mouthpiece, a cornet mouthpiece won't fit...too small.....i used a trumpet mouthpiece, and it seems to work fine....pitch may be a bit lower, but so far not too noticeable to me....best to try first.....