You can't always judge a book by its cover, or things aren't always what they seem. The Yamaha 354 is a student line instrument that is professionally playable. I have no experience with the Bach student/intermediate lines, so I'm wondering if anyone could shed some light on this. I see the 200b looks a lot like a 36b, and the 600 looks like a 3b. Are any of these Bach branded horns very playable? I don't think there are any of these in my town, so just going to test play one isn't really an option.

And then there are the lines like Mercedes, Soloist, Prelude, Aristocrat, etc. Can anyone make sense of it all?

The TB-200 has the same bore as a 36. At one time they had a version called "Omega" that was a popular school horn. I wouldn't dump a 36 for one. The older intermediate, the Mercedes, was actually a better made horn. Problem is any Mercedes you find is going to be at least 40 years old and condition could be a big factor.

The TB-300 is actually the old Bundy. No, can't confuse that with a 3B, 6H, or even a Strad 12. Actually, the TB-300 is built a bit better than the old Bundy.

I've not played on one but agree with your comments about the Yamaha 354. They are terrific horns. Great value.

I've played a bach prelude with an F attachment and it played alright. Doesn't compare to the new 42bo I've played or my Yamaha 548 allegro. But it's not a bad horn just nothing stood out about it.

I recently bought a couple cheap small bore student horns. They are beaters. One was advertised on eBay as a TB200?, but has a 0.500" bore, so its probably a TB301. Has a "Bach" engraving on the bell. The other one is a Bundy "Designed by Vincent Bach" engraved on the bell. From the pictures it looked like there were some common parts on the two horns, so I bought one to play and one for donor parts.

Question: What are the date ranges for manufacture of the TB301 and the "Designed by Vincent Bach" Bundy?

I thought the 301 had a bad slide until I got the Bundy. I will never complain about the slides on my 42B or 88H again. The slide on the 301 is (just) ok once i cleaned and lubed it (superslick). Its kind of fun to play. As I thought, the slide tenons and cork barrels are the same parts, so the slides and bell are interchangeable. The slides themselves are slightly different - so I can't swap inners and outers between the two horns. I'm thinking the better slide may take a trip to Georgia to see The Dr. The tuning slides are not interchangeable at the gooseneck (the Bundy gooseneck is slightly smaller), but the bell section is the same. The lengths of the tuning slides are also different. The Bundy may end up as the donor, especially as the bell and gooseneck mounts look to be the same.