Thomann SL 5 Soprano Trombone Reviews

A cool toy, not much more than that

Very easy to play, sounds pretty good, but has no tuning slide and the slide can be rotated even with the instrument fully assembled.

A cool toy but very limited as an instrument.

Best Purchase I’ve Made

I absolutely love this goofy little horn. While I did indeed buy this for the fun, I have come to just absolutely love this instrument. It has been more than fun learning to play it. I even got to play it for a gig tonight and it was great! High-quality material, great slide oil and instructions, and quick shipping. Pure Joy.

As Professional as it Gets

Very good slide trumpet. Good sound, and easy switch for a trumpet player wishing to play trumpet using a slide instead of valves. High quality!

Great quality, low price

A great bargain instrument of quality construction. Perfect for venturing into the realm of soprano trombone/slide trumpets for the first time!

Excellent value for money

Plays well and in tune, fits my trumpet mouthpiece perfectly and no issues 8 years on. Only improvement could be on making the tubing longer on the tuning section, as there is a hole that prevents you making the instrument flatter, past a certain point.

fun instrument

I bought this for my husband who is learning trombone and really wanted it. Sadly, only his teacher can play it!!

Mini Trombone, Maximum Fun 🤩

This thing is amazing! As an intermediate high school student, I’m fairly interested in music and all its little niches. And this particular instrument fills the role that nobody knew we needed filled. It responds well, higher harmonics are well tuned and sound great. Slide is smooth (especially with slide cream) and the lacquer is what you’d expect from a novelty instrument.

I bought this thing as a joke, but as it turns out, it’s a lot more fun to play than you’d think. Taking it into class, my fellow low brass players immediately fell in love with it.

My band director though…

Well, as it turns out, he wasn’t very fond of the “Baby Bone”. But after some time, I finally convinced him to let me play it in a solo during a concert.

10/10 instrument.

Not Just A Novelty

Okay, so leaving aside the soprano trombone vs slide trumpet debate, what you've got here is a cheap 'mini trombone' that is... er... what it is - a cheap soprano trombone. Its small, shiny, makes the right sounds, is light and comes with a decent case.

Until you get into the more specialist trombones, they are about as basic as a brass instrument can get: a bell, a brass tube, the slide section and the mouthpiece. There's still a lot that can go wrong with that but any more basic and you'll be buying a kazoo!

The bell and tubing are all solid but, like any instrument, don't sit on it. The welds are secure throughout, the spit-key does what it should and the slides are smooth. Overall, it's well-crafted. No frills and bows, but if there was anything fancy, you'd have to wonder where they were cutting costs to keep the price down.

The only 'fault' I've found is more about taking care with maintence - the slide lock (stops the slide falling off when not playing) will jam if you don't keep it clean and oil around it. It says more about me than it does the instrument.

The mouthpiece is your basic bog-standard mouthpiece that comes with any new instrument. Not brilliant, but not as god-awful as some other cheap instruments on the market.

In terms of playability, you've got the soprano range, which puts you in the trumpet zone, which when combined with the short slide length makes it a useful tool for introducing kids to the trombone. However, if you're playing one as an adult, you need to make a few adjustments. Just make sure to move the bell section around a few more degrees to help it sit more comfortably and don't hold the slide grip with the whole finger as you would on a standard trombone - you'll be scraping your knuckles on the bell if you do.

This does pretty much what a trombone should, just in a higher range. Yes, it will take time getting used to the short spacing of each position and the tone will be different from a tenor when you're at the lower end of the range but that's why you shouldn't see it as a novelty instrument. Saxophonists will switch between upper and lower range instruments just because the tonality gives them a totally different sound. If you're a trombonist looking at getting something new into your music, this makes for a bargain way to experiment with the range of sound you can achieve.

Tiny little trombone

This trombone is absolutely adorable! It seems rather well made, however the slide is very stiff and makes noise when moved. The slide lock also screeches when it's rotated. If it weren't for the slide and slide lock, then this would be the perfect soprano trombone! 7/10.

Great price, Great instrument

Very cheap price, almost $200 cheaper then anything I could find. I bought this mostly for my nephew who is 4 and he really loves the trombone but he couldn't hold my tenor trombone so I got this and he loves it, now he can play with me (not any songs yet but he can play a few good notes). He loves that he got a real instument that has capabilities, I don't know who likes playing it more, me or him. The product comes with gloves, a fine cloth, super slide lubricant and the instrument itself with a 7c trumpet mouthpiece, I only wish it came with a cleaning rod because a small bore cleaning rod doesn't work for some of it

Good Vibration

Perfect for the price...good maker!

SL5 Slide trumpet/soprano trombone.

As an experienced trumpet player and casual tenor trombonist, I bought this amazingly priced instrument for fun. I am surprised at the quality and performance of this instrument which cost only circa £100 delivered new.

The instrument is all brass with a fine gold laquer finish. When assembled, the slide on mine moved freely and smoothly. The accompanying mouthpiece is standard trumpet - unmarked but similar to a 5c. I have tried different trumpet mouthpieces satisfactorily. Sound from the instrument is fine but it requires technique to produce really good tone

The instrument is very light in weight and I get the feeling that it must be handled protectively to avoid damage from knocks or bumps.

Overall I am delighted with the looks, the sound and the functioning of this instrument. It is at the very low end of the price range but I rate it as excellent value for money and I expect to get loads of fun out of playing it.

What do you expect for £90

I think it is a good little trombone. My slide was ok but I took it to a friend who is an instrument technician, he polished the inside of the outer slide using brasso! The result was amazing it now runs like glass! I also had an adaptor made so I could use a Bach 3 for Eb horn , it now sounds more like a trombone but I will have to work on the high notes but goes up to F with no probs!

Good Demonstrator

I find this a little difficult to play. It's nothing to do with quality etc. but the resistance is a bit too low for me. I find it easy to miss pitch notes but that can be solved by practice. A good slide lubricant is a must though. I use the same as I use on my tenor trombone slide and that works very well. The quality of the construction is actually very good. This is great to use as a demonstrator for use in schools and due to it's price isn't a problem if it should become damaged.

Soprano trombone/Slide trumpet

It's a £90 small trombone. I couldn't expect too much, but right out of the box, the slide wouldn't move without considerable force due to plating delamination on the stockings of the slide inner. This has taken work to remove the flakes & polish the surface smooth enough to make playable, but a healthy grinding noise accompanies any vigorous slide movement. (Fit for purpose?)

Beyond fixing that, the catches on the case have cut my fingers twice now, due to sharp edges, so that's in the Garage, with the instrument in my trumpet gig-bag.

Finally, it's a right little pig to play. That may be me & my skills more than the instrument, although, I haven't found a trumpet/cornet of the same price range that is quite so 'challenging'.

Glad I bought it for the price & the amount of times it will be called into 'active service' but won't look forward to playing it anywhere near as much as I thought/hoped. Does anyone 'test-drive' these products?