The new ones are plenty good for the price ..I have three that I use for back ups and rough or dusty gigs..The tenor is well put together abeit a few rough edges..it's a '02 Big Bell and i'll whisper or scream without any complaint. It has a huge sound if you want it, and the scale is certainly acceptable (if you can play)..the action ain't bad and key placement is normal to my hands. I readily admit to a certain predjudice when I first heard of the CB horns, being a pro player most of my life I almost always played decent horns although I've played and inspected horns of every ilk. Anyway, after a brief honk in a local shop on a couple of newly arrived Big Bell Tenors a few yrs back... (one was silverplate and the other the Black stuff) ..I left the shop quickly without being particularly impressed at the time. My memory is jogged tho.. I do remember that first hint of massive power, I felt it, and the extremely bright almost out of tune palm keys..a little strange to me at the time. I also recall that I didn't look too closely but they were attractive for Asian horns and felt comfortable and reasonably solid. A year later: I needed a back-up Tenor in a hurry....in the meantime I'd heard better things about the CB, so I when I decided what the heck, I don't want to spend a ton of dough I'll take another look.. They had only one tenor hanging on the wall, a no lacquer job that had been well tested..well I didn't have time to fool around, and the guy said I could return it if I didn't like it..so $1300 and change later I was on my way to the gig.. Long story short I had the whole band and a bunch of the audience commenting on my tenor sound that night..well to be fair, I'd been playing my gorgeous workhorse silver VI tenor into the ground for months.. But man I was impressed right away with the horn in a real world onstage setting. And kinda blown away by the fact that a cheapo Asian deal could really nail it. I played the thing constantly for a year before a palm pad finally gave up the ghost...I figured these were decent back-up horns so I sprung for a matching unlac Big Bell Alto and then found a Silverplate RC Soprano for peanuts on Ebay that has actually proven to be a good-sounding,playable and worthwhile horn when I don't want to risk my beautiful series III soprano(can you say pool party).. Somebody named Rev/Bro (?) said it extremely well in a previous post ..he sounds very knowledgable about the construction aspects, the CB's do indeed have some rough edges but if you can play you'll probably dig the horn alot for what it is..And for a beginner or middleweight it's a lot of horn for the $$$ Just for the record, I ain't no Brecker, but I am a seasoned pro working full time in Vegas.. CBs have been maligned somewhat I think..I did encounter a very minor problem with the Brass neck on my Tenor.. I made one quick call and spoke directly with the Jefe..my problem was solved without hassle and they welcomed my feedback on the horns.

you could buy the nicest new wonder II or true-tone or aristocrat you could imagine, then ahve at least 300 left over to spend on other stuff that you would have spent on the CB, and the sax would be exponentially better. dang, give me a 500 dollar conn anyday over the nicest playing cannonball - or 4 of them.