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I did a search but was unable to find anything. In a recent eBay auction there was an "M&M" tuba for sale. Is this some kind of stencil brand? I've never heard of it...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tuba-New-BBb-M-M-Sy ... dZViewItem

Just keep refreshing the page...you're bound to see their ad on the top.

Has anyone here played one?

No, but I've eaten many over the years, in both plain and peanut, and all colors. My favorite is blue.

I played an M&M F tuba at the Florida All-State convention....it actually had a nice sound and seemed solid physically speaking, but the intonation wasn't to be desired...once they get that figured out these may be great horns. The price was only something like $2800 new, so I really couldn't inspect more than that.

I played about half a dozen of the MM tubas at the SERTEC at the University of Georgia in the Spring of 2005, and yes, they are all made in China.

The manufacturer is attempting to copy successful product lines from the West. I checked out what looked much like a Mirafone 186 BBb, an Amati 3/4 BBb, a Conn 5J BBb, a Cerveny "Piggy" BBb, a couple of others, and a 4-piston, 5th rotor F tuba.

The instruments looked much like fine tubas.

For you repairmen out there, if someone brings you an MM rotor tuba and you decide to try to work on the valves, be warned that the rotor stop arms are forcefully hammered on the valve stem in manufacture, enough-so that the stem bulges between the rotor bearing and the stop arm. To remove the valve without destroying the upper bearing, you must file down the stem above the bearing before you knock it out. Then, you actually have a chance of removing it with little additional problems, and with cleaning, swedging and fitting the bearings, and putting Uniball- or miniball linkage on the linkage, it might have halfway decent valves after you've done $750.00- worth of work to it. If one comes into your shop with intonation difficulties, check to see if the bell fits into the bottom bow ferrule, or if the joint is really rough with metal sticking into the air column. I have been told of this situation by another repair person, who said it made a big improvement in the instrument to smooth-out the bell-to bottom bow joint.

To the prospective buyer, I'll say this; You certainly can buy one of these instruments, but do not expect it to perform to the standards of instruments from well-established Western companies, Yamaha, and Jupiter. If a good repairman were to disassemble and basically re-manufacture the instrument to industry standards, your end cost could be quite substantial.

Lee Stofer wrote:For you repairmen out there, if someone brings you an MM rotor tuba and you decide to try to work on the valves, be warned that the rotor stop arms are forcefully hammered on the valve stem in manufacture, enough-so that the stem bulges between the rotor bearing and the stop arm.

One just has to ask "After going through all of the trouble to form the branches, spin the bell and machine the valves, why would anyone do something as boneheaded as this?" I'm not doubting what you say, Lee, just scratching my head. Maybe it's a really cheap way to make up for lack of precision in machining the bearings?

Has anyone mentioned this to Mike Bassichis, who is a poster on this BBS and who imports these things to the US?

Chuck(G) wrote:One just has to ask "After going through all of the trouble to form the branches, spin the bell and machine the valves, why would anyone do something as boneheaded as this?"

Maybe they first machine the valves undersize to take this into account...

"Ah, grasshopper, it takes many moon cycles to learn exactly how much force must be applied to the mallet... better you should continue polishing for now... when you can snatch the mallet from my hand before I engage the stem, THEN you shall be ready... "

The M&M line of instruments are for the player who is not going to buy the Alexander line of instruments that price from $8000 to $15,000.00
We have had great feedback from players and schools & Universities that are using the M&M line
We sell a great instrument for around $2000.00 with a hard case and m/p It has taken us 3 years to make sure we have a well made instrument to sell
Our aim is for players to have a good looking well playing tuba with out braking the bank
We will gladly give E mail address to schools that have our instruments
And also we give full refund on any trade up to our Alexander Tubas in the future

tubamlb wrote:We have had great feedback from players and schools & Universities that are using the M&M line

"Instructor Approved"!?

tubamlb wrote:The M&M line of instruments are for the player who is not going to buy the Alexander line of instruments that price from $8000 to $15,000.00..

Mike, I don't think that anyone wants to say bad things about the M&M horns--we'd all like a great instrument offered at a good price.

But when someone with the reputation of Lee Stofer calls out a production problem, I'd lpay attention if I were you.

If you can get the production and quality issues (and they don't actually sound all that serious) taken care of, you'll have tuba players flocking to buy your instruments.

Honestly. I'd love to see a really good budget-priced tuba. I'd be near the head of the line to buy one.

Thanks for the constructive remarks, We have brought to the instrument market an affordable line of Instruments, More Tuba for your Money, We check all instruments at the factory and continually up grade and refine the instruments
We would like an opportunity to replace or repair any instrument that needs attention and welcome and comments to make the M&M line even a better value

We will have the complete line of M&M Instruments at The Florida Music Education Conference in January and a Show in the NE, T B A

Please come by and introduce your self and test our line of M&M and Alexander Instruments

Thanks again
Michael