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Has anyone bought a horn from Tuba Exchange recently?

I purchased a St, Pete BBb 202N in April of 2008.

I bought a St. Pete 202N (as well) from them in December 2008. No problems with my dealings with 'em.

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If the OP has a problem, the OP should deal with TE. Not the TNFJ.

I bought a euphonium and a tuba there in the past 2 years. My old Amati is for sale there now. Their repair guy, Mike Morse has done some good work for me recently. As someone else has said, Vince is a good guy.

Thanks; just curious. . . and I did NOT mean to imply that there was a problem.

However, Let me ask if anyone is in a position to compare Miraphone "pro" models with the the corresponding student models . . . like the TE-191A BBb. I don't mind discussing via private messaging.

The TE-191A is made by Miraphone and has the Miraphone engraving on the bell.

As I understand it the TE Miraphone tubas are variants of the Miraphone base model where TE has determined the specs in choice of material. There is less nickel silver in the valve tubing. Maybe no garland/Kranz at the bell rim.

This makes the production cheaper and the looks are less fancy. Especially the lack of a nickel silver garland will make the bell more vulnerable.

Stability is important in school enviroments, yet the smaller amount of nickel silver makes the tubas more responsive to play, which I consider a bonus for school instruments.

The semi-stenciling scheme between Miraphone and TE is not unique at all. Several music retailers in West Germany had only their own names engraved on the bell with no mentioning of the original maker which might be B&S/Weltkland or Cerveny/Amati among others. I have seen documentation of Miraphone instruments having elaborate indications of their German or Swiss retailers added to the original engraving.

Even from Miraphone’s own catalogue it used to be possible to order the same acoustic design (main bugle bore progression) in several variants when it came to number-of-valves, metals, type-of-valve-transmission, garland and possibly more elements. I call that modular design, and it has been seen from several other makers also.

Klaus