This Trombone is of good quality. The slight is very smooth especially with the Yamaha slide liquid and a little bit of water. Forget the slide cream. It does not need a lot of air. I am not 100% sure if the middle C between the cleffs is at the right place right after the bell on third position. I find it that you have to play it a little closer to he second position. Otherwise the bone is tough. It fell at the airport from the trolley after I bought, though I had staffed it with tshirts in the bell, both the instrument and case were not damaged. I tried to clean it at two occasions after performance and the slide fell to the floor, no damage or even scratch marks. I only clean it at home on safely now. I now played it for almost 10 months. My conductor tried it and said sound, slide all good he too wants one ( he plays trombone and trumpet). He also use this mouth piece on a Getzen. I can't play high register with the mouth piece (48) though my colleague likes it. I use an alto trombone mouthpiece. I only use it indoors and at rare occasion, though for practice everyday, it aids my development. I play most church music in church and use an older trombone for funerals. I now also learned to play Euphonium to be able to still play at funerals. I certainly will buy another Yamaha brass instrument. Thomann had good service, when I bought these instruments via Belgium. However they did not allow me to buy via England though I wanted to pay cash like before (apart different rules for different countries). I will also buy from them again though.