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I wanted to get my brother a good cheap used fluegelhorn for his birthday but upon looking at all the usual places ebay as well as reputable dealers. There are virtually none to be had, inspite of the fact that new cornets generally run pricier than fluegels. However, there is a great surfeit of cornets out there. Many of these are barely used. My question is why is this? Is Chuck Mangione staging a comeback? Has British band music gone grossly out of style?

This one, in particular is a good buy:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 87803&rd=1

These Yamaha's are very receptive to those who are used to playing trumpet but provide a good flugel sound. The feel and blow are very similar to a trumpet and this horn takes little adjustment of playing style.

Repair folk won't mind working on a Yamaha, but those "Teacher Approved" and other assoted Chinese/Lower Pacific Rim horns are probably to be avoided. The German-made rotary flugels have a high degree of variability in many areas. You might get one that is fantastic, or one that is just plain poop.

I saw thats a reasonably good deal, still a little more than I want to spend. (I know I can pick up a good student euph for that much and for a $500 I could right away pick up a Jupiter which a few of fluegels player I know have been raving about.) I don't trust small rotaries at all, I've had very bad luck with them.

The question still is why are there so many cornets out there?