ACB Doubler's Piccolo Trumpet: A great entry-level professional piccolo

I don't know how they do it but they DID do it, and this horn is proof that ACB knows a thing or two about brass. It truly is the perfect "I only need it occasionally, but I want it to play well when I DO need it" horn. Intonation was excellent. Yeah, I'd rather have the Shilke P5-4...but I'd rather have the $3,000 I saved even more. If I used it every day or I was playing Penny Lane with the Canadian Brass every night, I might flip for the higher end horn, but make no mistake...this is no second-rate horn. I ran through Brandenberg 2 the second night I had it and it and could not find anything to complain about. For a guy who has survived by borrowing his friend's Piccs...this was a nice surprise. Throw in the very personal touch from Trent and all I can say if if you've looked at it this long...then just buy it. It's completely worth it!! Four leadpipes and two mouthpieces...and the price is unbeatable. Again, I could take the Schilke, but that's basically Three ACB Doubler's and a Getzen. That's a lot of brass for the savings....

I've played a Yamaha 6810 for a decade and when I was in college, I used the school's p5-4 and 9830 for 2 years each, and a Charlie Schlueter custom 3+1 w/ a converted Eb bell for my senior year. Loved the 9830 and Charlie's, the p5-4 was fine. The 6810 was a "budget" buy, and I always felt like the horn was holding me back. I've been looking for a 9830 deal, but something about this horn and the ACB line in general intrigued me. I figured it was low risk to give it a shot, even though I'm pretty gun shy about cheap piccs. I can quite honestly say: all other picc companies should be scared as *&%$ of this horn. Sure, there are some issues with it, but they're minor things that only the most type A of players would care about, and none of them have affected the playability of the horn at all. The biggest issue was the mouthpiece fit in the receiver. I play a stork 3p, both trumpet and cornet shank. For my trumpet shank, it sat a little farther out than normal, and doesn't want to seat properly with the normal "in with a slight twist." I have to apply slightly more force to get it to seat, then it's fine. This wasn't an issue with Curry, Bach, or Monette (the Monette picc piece did sit further out as well as compared with the 6810, but did not have the same issue with seating) mouthpieces. For the cornet pipes, the Stork sat in much farther than usual, all the way to the widest part of the shank, and again needed to have a little more force than usual on the twist to make it seat without slipping out. My Yamaha, Parduba and Bach cornet pieces didn't have this issue. The other issues were mainly minor finish "problems" that would occur with normal wear anyway (lacquer slightly scratched on the crook from leadpipe to 4th valve where it contacts surfaces when put down, very small ding in the bell that would come eventually when putting in a mute quickly, etc. All are acceptable to me, as I care a little less about looks and care mainly about sound and playability). Where this horn shines is it's sound, feel and intonation. I can play low C# and F# 123 w/ no problems (the 2-4 breaks my brain sometimes), and all of the idiosyncrasies match up with my playing on my other horns. The valves on this horn feel fantastic. They get an alignment from Trent's shop which is dead on the money, and they feel smooth with the perfect resistance. They feel very similar to my Bach horns (artisan C, 190-1b and 180-37), except a little quieter. The playing feel of this horn is magnificent. You still need to use less air than you do on the big boys, but I'm not getting backed up like I did on the 6810. As far as endurance goes, I could literally play this horn all day, with just my normal breaks. I still try to apply my "rest twice as much as play" philosophy for this one, but it feels so good that I find myself wishing those breaks to move faster. It also is excellent swapping back and forth between horns. I schedule that within my daily sessions, and it always took me a bit to get used to the 6810. This horn I can just pick up after any of my other horns and I never have any issues. It sounds fantastic and is flexible to fit the style needed. Working excerpts with it, I can tell this will be able to cut no problem (I'll probably be getting "the hand" on Goldenberg

I’m getting back into the pic again after some time away, and am loving Trent’s doublers pic in silver finish. Recently I’ve had the opportunity to compare with a Selmer and Schilke, and me and my buddy both found the ACB pic to be the most comfortable. It plays great and has a nice open blow to it (which is weird, in a good way, right?). For the price, this is really a no brainer. Great for any student or a doubling pro as intended.