Old Mirafone 186

[Rick Denney]

Although I've found my 184-4U CC to have very workable pitch, it also seems to have been BUILT vented...

All five valves of TubaRay's 186 CC are vented, too. But I've never seen a BBb Miraphone with vented valves. I vented the first valve on my 186 myself.

Rick "thinking factory valve vented was reserved for C tubas" Denney

[twoconnguy]

Was the numbering system the same for all of the Mirafone tubas? I have two detachable bell 186 BBb models, and one has a serial number of 1855 and the other 8773. They may be older than I thought they were!

[Dan Schultz]

Was the numbering system the same for all of the Mirafone tubas? ..... They may be older than I thought they were!

I'm in the process of rebuilding Mirafone #1735... probably made in 1961. This one came with a front-facing bell. It has plain brass slide tubes. Only the ferrules are nickel-silver. It looks like it's going to be a nice horn.

Here's a serial number list:

http://www.musictrader.com/mirafone.html

[twoconnguy]

So if we keep having discussions about old Mira's like this:http://cgi.ebay.com/MIRAFONE-4851-4-Rot ... dZViewItem, and how well they sound, will they begin to approach cultish status and corresponding value of the Yorks??

[Chuck(G)]

I'm in the process of rebuilding Mirafone #1735... probably made in 1961. This one came with a front-facing bell. It has plain brass slide tubes. Only the ferrules are nickel-silver. It looks like it's going to be a nice horn.

So the tips of the outer slides and the brace flanges are brass also? I finished working on 178x awhile ago, and there were touches of nickel beyond the ferrules.

[Dan Schultz]

I'm in the process of rebuilding Mirafone #1735... probably made in 1961. This one came with a front-facing bell. It has plain brass slide tubes. Only the ferrules are nickel-silver. It looks like it's going to be a nice horn.

So the tips of the outer slides and the brace flanges are brass also? I finished working on 178x awhile ago, and there were touches of nickel beyond the ferrules.

Yeah... just the tips of the slide tubes are nickel. The engraving on the face of the rotor caps is kinda funky, too! They look like they might have been engraved by a trainee One half has the traditional Miraphone scrolling and the other half is just 'squiggles'.

[iiipopes]

Hey, what's with the second valve not having nickel ferrules?

[Chuck(G)]

Hey, what's with the second valve not having nickel ferrules?

Those ain't ferrules--they're outer slides. No ferrules needed--and outer slides are brass on the old ones.

The old Miraphones are kind of fun--very clearly handwork. Stop blocks on the ones I have, for example, don't have the mounting holes drilled in precisely the same position--they're mated to their valves.

[iiipopes]

Well, you learn something new everyday! I'd never heard of outer slides on a tuba. Bach Strad trumpet with thumb saddle, yes, but not tubas!

[Chuck(G)]

Well, you learn something new everyday! I'd never heard of outer slides on a tuba. Bach Strad trumpet with thumb saddle, yes, but not tubas!

I suppose I should have said "outer slide tubes"--but you've been living a sheltered life. I have a York with the 4th slide being an inner-outer combination. Works great.

[Rick Denney]

Well, you learn something new everyday! I'd never heard of outer slides on a tuba. Bach Strad trumpet with thumb saddle, yes, but not tubas!

You missed what Chuck said. The second-valve slide still inserts inside the branch tubing as with any other tuning slide.

But the inner tube on the slide itself is the same size tubing as is used in the branch. Thus, the tubing that it slides into has to be bigger. It mounts over the basic branch tubing and is soldered in place.

In this case, the tubing into which the slide inserts is soldered directly to the valve knuckles, and the tuning slide butts against those knuckles when pushed in all the way.

On later Miraphones, the tubes into which the slides insert are nickel-silver. But they are brass on this one.

Note the nickel outer slides on my 70's Miraphone:



Rick "recognizing that in later Miras, the outer slides and ferrules are cut from the same stock" Denney

[iiipopes]

Well, you learn something new everyday! I'd never heard of outer slides on a tuba. Bach Strad trumpet with thumb saddle, yes, but not tubas!

I suppose I should have said "outer slide tubes"--but you've been living a sheltered life. I have a York with the 4th slide being an inner-outer combination. Works great.

Not sheltered, deprived. In my little corner of the state I didn't even get to play a Miraphone until I got to grad school in a larger place. Even now, anybody who looks closely at my tuba gets a cross-eyed or dumbfounded look on their faces, and I have to patiently explain the Patented Blaikley Automatic Compensating System to them.

I have work to do. A couple of months ago I went over to my undergrad to borrow an Eb tuba, and the newly hired band director, upon being asked the question, replied, "Eb what?"

They did have one, however, in the back of the basement, of course. (Sigh) Oh, Well....

[Dan Schultz]

..... I went over to my undergrad to borrow an Eb tuba, and the newly hired band director, upon being asked the question, replied, "Eb what?"

That's REALLY a shame! I don't mean to twist this thread, but when I started playing in 1955, that's what you got to start on. US bandsmen (except for the few and far between brass band guys) have all but forgotten the usefulness of the Eb tuba.

[Chuck(G)]

That's REALLY a shame! I don't mean to twist this thread, but when I started playing in 1955, that's what you got to start on. US bandsmen (except for the few and far between brass band guys) have all but forgotten the usefulness of the Eb tuba.

Or never understood it to begin with. It was only lately that the first trumpet in our quintet discovered that the horn I was playing was an Eb. "But it has more than 3 valves and it's big!" he observed.

This is a middle-school band director, by the way.