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Just spotted this 3/4 BBb 3 top piston tuba at Thomann website. It came out in Oct.2011 and is selling for 960.euro plus 30. euro shipping to USA.

Does anyone care to comment on VMI overall? Not likely this model has been around long enough to have been evaluated much.

Armin

You can find information about VMI in the archives.

The design, including the bell profile, looks very inspired by the old student models from Besson/B&H.

I will not exclude that the shipping costs are quoted correctly, but they appear being too low to be true. Please be aware that you will have to pay US taxes and duties calculated on the sum of instrument price and shipping costs.

Klaus

imperialbari wrote:You can find information about VMI in the archives.

The design, including the bell profile, looks very inspired by the old student models from Besson/B&H.

I will not exclude that the shipping costs are quoted correctly, but they appear being too low to be true. Please be aware that you will have to pay US taxes and duties calculated on the sum of instrument price and shipping costs.

Klaus

Thank You Klaus. I will search the archives. Shipping is a low number, even by slow boat. For Canada (my summer home) they quote 50. Euro and 30. to US destinations.
If there are no serious downsides, i would like one as a 'leave in the van' horn instead of a beat up local something. The price is right?

Armin (not trying to cheat on my Alexander 163....ever)

I have bought stuff, mostly stands and plucked strings, from Thomann, so I looked the said model up. Thomann’s prices vary with the country implied by ones choice of language, as they by EU rules charge whatever percentage of VAT in the (EU-)country of the customer. Still your price quote must be for this B-stock sample:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/vmi_205_l_bstock.htm

My normal take on private imports across the Atlantic is that the instrument has to be something special to justify the shipping, the red tape, and the duties. I have done quite a few imports from the US myself, so I know.

Despite the fairly cheap shipping I am not sure it is good business to import a B-stock (very likely) Chinese instrument from Europe to America. There must be more relevant offers on your side of the pond.

Klaus

imperialbari wrote:I have bought stuff, mostly stands and plucked strings, from Thomann, so I looked the said model up. Thomann’s prices vary with the country implied by ones choice of language, as they by EU rules charge whatever percentage of VAT in the (EU-)country of the customer. Still your price quote must be for this B-stock sample:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/vmi_205_l_bstock.htm

My normal take on private imports across the Atlantic is that the instrument has to be something special to justify the shipping, the red tape, and the duties. I have done quite a few imports from the US myself, so I know.

Despite the fairly cheap shipping I am not sure it is good business to import a B-stock (very likely) Chinese instrument from Europe to America. There must be more relevant offers on your side of the pond.

Klaus

Yes, indeed. B stock...hm. What they come up with to lure us.hoodwink us? The other one is 1260. Euros. Trouble importing. maybe buy an old Olds or Reynolds for 500. ?
Cheers, Armin

My horn is a VMI 201; it is a top action 4 valve 3/4 size horn. I like it, bought it from someone in the "For Sale" section here about 2 years ago (not a regular poster, but not a one-time poster either). I like mine. I will see if I can find the pics. It is larger than the Yamaha 105, but smaller than the 201. Really great high and super low register, suffers in the "money" range a bit, but I suspect that is mostly player error.

Found the linky:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=35642&p=315984&hilit=vmi#p315984" target="_blank

[quote="bearphonium"]My horn is a VMI 201; it is a top action 4 valve 3/4 size horn. I like it, bought it from someone in the "For Sale" section here about 2 years ago (not a regular poster, but not a one-time poster either). I like mine. I will see if I can find the pics. It is larger than the Yamaha 105, but smaller than the 201. Really great high and super low register, suffers in the "money" range a bit, but I suspect that is mostly player error.

Thank You so much for a helpfull post. I saved the pix and the data and will keep looking and thinking.
I will be doing dixie more and also some stand up gigs. Your Yorkmaster sounds intriguing also...!?

Armin

Armin, the York Master was also picked up on Tubenet from Mike Black, a VaTech tuba player who graduated awhile back. Fun horn to play, good for Dixieland or TubaChristmas events. Way have to check the archives for that! I'll try and dig up a pic.
Ally

http://www.b-and-s.com/history.html Suggests here that VMI is part of the same group as B&S from Eastern Germany.

I had a VMI CC tuba for a few years after college. It was a stencil of a Meinl-Weston 30 (the 4 valve version of the MW-32). It was a MW bell, bow, and branches, and a VMI valve set. Very nice tuba and very well-built. Although I moved on from it, I wouldn't complain too much if I had been "stuck" with it for much longer.