TubaForum.net

Got the notice about this sale on FB. But when you look at the fine print, among other things, it says the sale excludes “Tubas, euphoniums, bassoons, xylophones, vibraphones, marimbas, tympani, and heavy furniture”.

Or "up to $500"...

‘ reminds me of Harbor Freight sales…

The Musicians Friend discounts have worked with lower priced accessories +shipping included so…

A few years ago I took advantage of a wwbw or musician's friend 20% sale to get $800 off on a yamaha horn that also had a $100 factory rebate. The final price was near what I was seeing as used prices on that particular model. Ever since then I have noticed that they now have limits.

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Yeah, I guess they were a much better company when they were independent. I myself bought my VMI euphonium from them 20 years ago. I think it was a model exclusive to them, made by B&S, real made in Germany (not cobbled together in Germany from Chinese parts like you see these days from some brands), really nice quality 4 valve non-compensating but fairly in tune horn for what I considered a good price. The only thing out there like it was the Yamaha. About the same price but a large shank receiver and a Hiscox case, one of the best cases out there I think. And when they had a sale back then there were no exclusions. And free shipping to boot. Ever since they got sucked up by the Musician’s Friend umbrella company, they haven’t been the same. The exclusions I pointed out are typical of Musician’s Friend outlets. For example, if you want a guitar, the discount never seems to be any good for Fender, Gibson, Taylor, or Martin. In other words, anything you might actually want to buy. Oh, the discount is always good on accessories. So if you want a set of guitar strings that normally costs 9.99 for 8.49, there you go, big whoop. Now, if WWBW was willing to discount a Miraphone tuba 15%, or even $500 (their maximum), then they would have my attention.

I bought a VMI Mel Culbertson Neptune (piston) from WW&BW back when Charlie was there and spoke with him on the phone. The VMI was a “bargain” 6/4 (kinda) for $8k when it came out.

About 5 or 6 years later, I picked up a demo (but in great shape) Besson 994 for something really cheap at the time, like $2200. That’s back when they used to advertise demo, scratch and dent, and used horns on their website. They were just starting to carry mainland Chinese tubas in large volume.

I still get adverts from them, and mainly ignore them. I can usually do better, in both price and quality, by dealing with independent dealers.

A fun development at this time, was when they were merging with a bricks and mortar operation, of which I can’t remember the name (it wasn’t guitar center, but definitely a clone of it). The local store in Orlando, FL had a Holton Phillips model, as it was new at the time, and it had a sticker on it of something like $12,000. Silly.

matt g wrote: ↑Sun Mar 20, 2022 11:57 am About 5 or 6 years later, I picked up a demo (but in great shape) Besson 994 for something really cheap at the time, like $2200. That’s back when they used to advertise demo, scratch and dent, and used horns on their website.

Musicians Friend still has scratch and dent/open box.

They have an additional10% off for members now.

There is a Miraphone 186 for about 7400 and the 10% off worked on it. Shipping included. If I had it shipped to DE there would be no tax.

I support local vendors, but for less-common/not-in-stock/need-it-now items, I've had positive experiences with WWBW. They do an admirable job of integrating an efficient, large-scale ecommerce business with a personal-touch capability.

In fact, this week I received the last of an accessories order that began last year in August. I needed a lyre boss for my son's Besson 2052, and in anticipation of long lead times, up-scaled the order into spare guides, felts, dampers, etc., (to have them on-hand instead of cobbling together a jerry-rig in time of need). I worked closely with the rep to get the order right, then he turned it over to their system.
As expected, the order trickled in, but WWBW's processes and systems include good communication and tracking - never any concern over my eventual receipt of the bits and pieces - and the dedicated salesperson was available via email through the fulfillment.

Several years ago, I stumbled into a Miraphone 1291 with a miss-posted price on the WWBW site. I called, and they honored it. Numerous times since, I've found their sales staff to be not only pleasant and professional, but also flexible in the application of discounts. Yesterday I carted a mouthpiece on their site, but picked up the phone before check-out to see whether they'd apply the 15%. "Closed mouth don't get fed" as one of my colleagues use to say, and I'm looking forward to receiving the discounted mouthpiece, and since it's WWBW, I have nary a concern over packaging or shipping.