Yes, I know that the place to ask these questions is really on the trombone forum(s). But I might in fact get more useful information for my purposes here, and without the introduction of axes that some might to grind on those forums. Also, when I tried to join the trombone forum last year I was not permitted to do so since the moderator refused to add me because I didn't own a trombone at the time. I can probably satisfy the stringent criteria now since I own a broken Chinese trombone from an unheard-of maker. But I thought I'd ask here first.

I'm thinking of getting a bass trombone. While finding a reasonable old used one is a possibility, I think it's relatively remote in the the time frame I'm looking at and within my budget. As in the case of euphoniums, it is now possible to get a very good instrument at a pretty low cost. I'm hoping in the the range of $800 or even less. Having both a Chinese tuba and a Chinese euph, I know full well what the advantages, disadvantages, and trade-offs are. But I do have some questions which I hope might be answered by people with ACTUAL EXPERIENCE of the instruments in question -- rather than on the basis of total speculation of "I have a friend who ..." or "I know a guy who knows a guy ..." or "My repair tech says ...". So with that preamble ...

There seem to be primarily two (and maybe three) variants of these things floating around. There are the Yamaha 830 clones (Mack Brass TB831, E. F. Durant 1031B, and various Ebay vendors), and the King 7B clones (E. F. Durant 1030B, Schiller SCHM60, Wessex, and various Ebay vendors). Schiller also has one with Thayer valves that looks as though it may be a Conn clone, but I'm not really interested in Thayer valves.

Prices range from about $460 (Durand 7B clone) to $1,225 (Wessex 7B clone), with some very low prices from some Ebay vendors. Warranties vary as well, but most have a 2-yr warranty of some sort (which I'm inclined to ignore except for Wessex and Mack). I would have high faith in getting a good instrument from either Mack or Wessex. The others I might be willing to take a chance on if that's all the money I'll have.

My main questions are these:

1. Has anyone on this forum tried both the King and the Yamaha clones? Any comments?
2. Has anyone tried the Yamaha and the King originals? Any comments on that? My impression is that the Yamaha seems to be generally preferred by trombonists, but I'd be interested in some insight.
3. These all seem to be independent rotor designs. Anyone know of a Chinese clone of a dependent rotor design?