I think this horn ended up costing me at least three times its real price, and probably more. It was an impulse eBay buy, and then "just needs a little oil" turned into a $200 valve repair. On top of that it has a European-size lead pipe, needing a special mouthpiece - trumpet shank, but shorter (of course it came with a wrong one). So, custom-cut conical Parduba mouthpiece (6½ double-cup) = more money. I actually sold my guitar to cover the repairs. Even then it's not perfect - the intonation is uneven, I have to keep the third slide pulled halfway out.
Nonetheless, I am not bitter. I had it since May and I still cannot get over just how cool this thing is. It used to be lacquered, but now it's all raw brass except inside the bell; large, heavy, awkward, totally steampunk thing - look at the the valves in the last pic. Sometimes I feel like just sitting and quietly holding it in my arms. I used to think I have an incomplete Y chromosome, missing the gene that confers the ability to tell front- from rear-wheel drive... but I guess my gear obsession gene is still expressed, just in a different way.
Good people at Oakland's A&G Repair, namely Brian, replaced the valve springs, cleaned and lubed the whole assembly, so the valves are superfast and supersmooth. I find it easier to play throughout the entire register on this thing than on my trumpet, and I expected it to be the opposite - flugels are notoriously hard to control above the high G. I think it might be the mouthpiece. I read about double cup before and thought it was a gimmick, but maybe not... And, of course, the sound, the sound! deep V mp + extra-wide conical bore = deep, dark, mellow.
A thread on Lidl Flugels on the TrumpetMaster board - people mostly say good things.
Not everyone is happy with Lidls, though:
Of course, there are good rotary trumpets and bad ones, just like with piston trumpets. I've bought a number of poor ones on eBay, all antiques, mostly from Czechoslovakia. - from Youtube comments
How to disassemble antique rotors
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I have this same horn. It does take more effort from the player to keep it in tune, but the sound is pleasing and it does want to hit the higher notes easier than my Stradivarius. I use a standard trumpet mouthpiece on mine without any problems. The horn did come with a deep cup raw brass mouth piece. I don't known if that was original to it or not. Probably.
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