JZ 5v CC Tubas

[tubajoe]

the pristine Bavarian handmade attention to detail

Joe, I'm not happy when anybody talks like this, especially somebody as brilliant as you.
What exactly do you mean ?

Uh oh, did I accidentally step in something?

I was comparing Miraphone to other exceptional Bavarian products such as:

A car by Bayerische Motoren Werke
or a
A perfectly balanced reinheitsgebot beer.

Meaning to say one horn is an expensive artisanal high end horn, the other is a very reasonably priced, well playing budget facsimile.

[tubajoe]

^ tubajoe was prolly talking about overall fit & finish. Vintage Mirafones were handmade, but the modern ones are no more "handmade" than Meinl-Weston/B&S, Yamaha, Jupiter, etc.

Interestingly, I have an old, probably-1970's YBB 201 "student/practice" tuba that is very clearly handmade. The bell, all bows, and even the slide tubes were hand-hammered of sheet-brass. You can look down the bell and see the seam in the bottom bow, and see hammer-mark 'ripples' throughout the tuba where dent work was done. Yes, even vintage Yamahas were handmade!

The new ones are indeed handmade. Every part of them... valves are machined in house - have seen it with my own eyes. Not only are they handmade, the company is employee-owned.

Some other brands are too... the $40k Yamayorks are handmade too, I believe.

Anyway, hope you guys got my point. Sorry for any confusion.

The JZ is a solid and better than expected alternative, but is apples to oranges to the real McCoy.