Miraphone ID help

[Dan Schultz]

Most of the serial numbers I have seen from the 70's are only four digits. Do you know the model number? Can you post a picture?

[TubaRay]

Can anyone help me identify a Miraphone Bb tuba. The number on the bell is 11973. It looks to be from the late 70's. 40 inches high and 16 3/8 in bell diameter.
Thanks,
Richard

I believe the year would be 1979, possibly 1980.

[Dan Schultz]

Yup - that's gotta be a 186, it looks to be identical to mine, which is a 186 BBb with a serial number slightly less than the one on that horn.

According to this site: http://www.musictrader.com/mirafone.html it was manufactured in 1979 (or likely soon after).

You know... as many times as I've been to the Lars Kirsmer site to check out serial numbers... I've never noticed the Miraphone section! DUH

[imperialbari]

The reason I mentioned the 1970's is because my professor has a 181 or 180 F tuba from that time and the valve linkages are the same.

Especially with S-links you cannot use the linkage to date an instrument.

That type of linkage is as old as the rotor valve itself. For many years it was also used on the best models. However the S-linkage gets noisy with wear. It takes a repairman to compensate for such wear.

Hence other linkage types have been developed, so that the player can adjust the linkage tightness with a screwdriver.

I own a pre-WWII Ernst David flugelhorn with an early attempt of a ball-and-socket system. A better version of the ball-and-socket system is known from the B&S tubas. I guess that various mini-ball systems represent the most modern in linkages by now.

The reason, why the S-linkage system hardly cannot be used for dating instruments from the last 3 or 4 decades, is to be found in the modular production form, which makers like Miraphone, B&S, and Amati/Cerveny use:

In many cases the cheapest student models and the soloist models are of the exact same design.

The bells, bows, and branches often are the same. The differences between the cheaper and the more expensive models were/are in these areas:

the number of valves
the amount of nickel silver trim
garland or no garland
the sophistication of the valve linkages (with the S-linkage being the cheap one)
plain brass versus red brass (or in the US: nickel silver)

That is why one can find extremely fine Weltklang F tubas sounding as good as the Symphonie models from the same house, B&S. But then the Weltklang F-tuba maybe only has 3 valves with S-links, whereas it is rare to find an equivalent B&S with less than 5 valves with ball-and-socket and maybe T-T links (both Weltklang and Symhonie were made in 4-valve versions to be totally honest, but I only ever have seen one single 4 valve Symphonie F-tuba documented. Whereas the 5 and 6 valve versions used to be very common in my country).

Miraphone uses the same modular system with a few more permutations available on some models.

Amati/Cerveny also works with modules. The simplest models are named Amati, whereas the more luxury ones are named Cerveny.

The same system also has been used more or less extensively by Besson and by some US makers. Bach used one-piece bells for their best trumpets and trombones, whereas the student lines had two-piece bells (and only one stay in the main tuning slide area).

Most of the above text is illustrated in my brass galleries.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre