@robcs Well, mine is exactly the same. I had a friend test play it as well - pro player with 25 years of playing in London West End musicals under his belt - and he wanted to take if off me for a whopping € 1,500 at once. Did not get it. I've had a number of C trumpets in my time - I started off with a Bach Strad 239, then had a Strad rotary, a Stomvi Elite C, a 1940 Couesnon, a Votruba rotary C (which I only play-tested for a friend of mine who wanted it to top a friend's gold-plated Lechner - which it did), but the Gaudet is the one that fits me best. It came with a #1 Tilz mouthpiece which suited it very well indeed, but for me it does best with my regular Bach Megatone 1C, or with my Stomvi Mouthpiece System on 1 B configuration.
As to being an intermediate/student horn... I've recently got info from another player who used to visit the Courtois works pretty regularly that Courtois did not produce different lines per se. That's why there is the Courtois stamp on the valve block. They produced the basic trumpet (i.e. without additional triggers and rings and the like) and then had their quality control guys go over the hooters. Anything that was not 110% perfect (little blobs in the lacquer, minute scratches and the like) was then branded Gaudet, while the perfect horns got the AC pinky ring and were branded Courtois.
As to 3rd valve rings - mine has an underslung one so as to make space on the upperside of valve #3 for a lyre holder.
