I’ve owned a Donald E Getzen trumpet since the early 1980s which served me well playing a mix of orchestral, concert band, swing band and jazz through high school, uni and into early adulthood. Stopped playing when I moved into an apartment with paper-thin walls and never really properly started again, so my chops are 25+ years out of training! My 16-year-old is now the primary guardian of the DEG horn and is doing really well, but he’s recently been enjoying playing some duets with his teacher - and I’ve enjoyed listening to them enough to catch the bug again and want to join in! (To help him practise in between lessons, obviously…)

So I took to FB Marketplace and found this pretty local to me, so collected it this evening. A young woman was selling her dad’s instrument: reading between the lines of her story, he played regularly throughout his life, until shortly before his death last year. She had no knowledge of the instrument, but couldn’t remember a time when her dad didn’t have it.

From my very limited knowledge and amateur research, it looks to be a Besson 2-20 (their mid-range offering?) made in the UK circa 1965-68. But I could be way off… Anybody here familiar with Besson horns and can steer me here? It’s well used and has a fine patina (which I love) but the valves and slides move well, it’s clearly been very well cared for, and I have a suspicion I’ve caught an absolute bargain at $80 (Canadian).

Over to the r/trumpet collective for your assembled wisdom!

Mid-60s Besson 2-20: what do I have here?