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On Monday, I had my Mirafone 186 serviced and chem-cleaned by Matt Walters, at Dillon's.As expected the horn works great. But, what I didn't know was that the few small dents Matt took out from the tuning slide were responsible for much of the [small] problem I found with the horn's low register. Matt explained that they, much more so than, say, a dented leadpipe, would cause low register problems faster than anywhere else on the horn. I never knew this. Sure enough, I find a great improvement. There is still one significant dent he wasn't able to correct without taking the slide apart, and he promises there will be improvement when I get that done, too.
Go figure!
FYI

Wow! If that's really important, the Miraphone 185 in my basement deserves a new life (when the valves get speeded up too). I have a LOT of confidence in Matt's expertise.