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I just ran across this on the Horn Guy's site. Very interesting. I'm guessing that Steve Fergusen wrote it.

This is a nicely made copy of the Miraphone 191 5/4 BBb rotary tuba by (or for) Chuangshi Zhijun International Musical Instrument Trading Company, Limited. Say that several times fast. It's made in China, and I normally wouldn't have noticed it, but for two cute young Chinese women who approached me at the end of the NAMM show. They were just complete dolls. Pardon me if I blush. They asked if I would buy their tuba so they wouldn't have to ship it back to China. I grumbled that I'd have to play it first. I did, and I was completely blown away. This is a very decent tuba. Nice workmanship, excellent pitch, beautiful tone, no problems at all.

Ace wrote:
This is a nicely made copy of the Miraphone 191 5/4 BBb rotary tuba by (or for) Chuangshi Zhijun International Musical Instrument Trading Company, Limited. Say that several times fast.

I don't even think I can say it once.

My tuba teacher is friends with the guys at TubaMM (which happens to be located very close to me). He said he tried their 200 model and was astounded at how it sounded. This coming from a guy who plays a suh-weet Rudy Meinl 5/4 CC. He said he'd try to pick one up and bring it to our next meeting so I could try it out.

It's cool that you found a horn you really liked. Did you buy it?

Jackson,

I didn't write the review. I just put in the part from the Horn Guy's site. Guess I should have enclosed it in quotes. http://www.hornguys.com/

Yeah, the guy bought the horn, and it now shows as "SOLD" on the site.

Ace

Oh man, I didn't pay attention to that...

I played on one of them (the piston-valve "MM BAT") at the Army Conference. I found it very comfortable, although a shorter person would have to sit on a pillow to reach the leadpipe. (I am 5' 10") It speaks well enough so that I could hear myself over the general din of the "elephant room", and that says a lot. I like the piston layout, and the slides are all accessible. I thought the first valve tubing needed to be shorter, and would have preferred to have the pull-ring on the second valve slide rotated by 90 degrees. I also found the middle register to be slightly flat on that instrument, but I did like the price.
I did not try the rotary version, but Rick D. said he preferred it.

I also play a "suh-weet" Rudy Meinl 5/4 CC. Although I certainly would not trade for the M&M, I found it to be a fairly good tuba. For the asking price, it would be tough to beat for a new tuba. That's my opinion.

Art Hovey wrote:..... I did not try the rotary version, but Rick D. said he preferred it.

I saw the M & M piston BAT while I was in Ft. Lauderdale over the weekend. I also had the rotary 5V CC in my shop the week before the Army conferrence (not for repairs... just to look it over before going to the show). I am impressed at the strides the Chinese have made in terms of the workmanship on these horns. The valves are smooth and the slides fit much better than the horns I was seeing even as recently as a year ago. I haven't spent much time with the horns to determine how good the intonation characteristics are, but it looks like some of the 'interesting' problems like simply getting the factory grit out of the horns is under control. Kudos to the Mike at M & M for staying on the manufacturers and seeing that good progress is being made. Some of these Chinese horns are going to give the Europeans a serious 'run for their money'. Maybe we'll see the European prices come down as a result of the competition.

I played the M&M CC tubas at the Army Conf., and I wasn't really impressed. Both horns felt stuffy to me, and the valves were not at all smooth. I'm not saying they are not OK horns, but I didn't like the 2 that I played.

Does anybody know anything about Musicwerks tubas? I have a student bent on buying one because of the reasonable price. I'm trying to discourage him by steering him to a used Cerveny for the same price.

TubaTinker wrote:

Art Hovey wrote:..... I did not try the rotary version, but Rick D. said he preferred it.

I saw the M & M piston BAT while I was in Ft. Lauderdale over the weekend. I also had the rotary 5V CC in my shop the week before the Army conferrence (not for repairs... just to look it over before going to the show). I am impressed at the strides the Chinese have made in terms of the workmanship on these horns.

I'm also interested in what Roger Lewis has to say about the Chinese horns now that he is back at WWBW. They have sold Allora and Barrington for awhile and he is now again in the position to demand more improvements in the horns.

The prospect of a new, quality $2.5K horn is very, very attractive. Even if they were coming in at Cerveny price, they would be another legitimate choice.