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What does the "u" stand for in miraphone tubas. (183 4u, 186 5u). I know the numbers are number of valves but the u stumps me

I'm not certain exactly what that 'U' stands for. But... I've not seen a Miraphone with that designation that did not have nickel-silver outer slide tubes.

bloke wrote:U = "upright" bell vs. the (no longer available) R = "recording" bell

bloke "really"

Duh! Shoulda knowed thet! The one on Craigs List has a 'R' designation but the upright bell looks a little 'wonky'. Of course! ... it's been converted into an upright bell.

I thought the "u" stood for the german word for "valve". Don't the "5u" mirafones have 5 valves? I don't remember what the word was, but it began with a "U" and had many syllables. I think I saw it in an old Alexander catalog.

Art Hovey wrote:I thought the "u" stood for the german word for "valve". Don't the "5u" mirafones have 5 valves? I don't remember what the word was, but it began with a "U" and had many syllables. I think I saw it in an old Alexander catalog.

Ventilig, I believe. I am taking Spanish class however....... not German

The German word for valve is Ventil. Its base is the same as English vent.

The German word ventilig is very close to English valved, but with the slight difference that a number may be added to tell the degree to which it is valved like on this page:

http://www.thomann.de/de/kanstul_modell ... ntilig.htm

Miraphone had different model designations for the American and for the European markets. I had to shrink this scan of a spread from a 1993 (or so) catalogue. Still it should be possible to see that the U only is an element in the American model designations and hence without any German references.

Klaus

goodgigs wrote:Wow ! He speaks
Danish, English AND "krautlandic" PLUS he is a ventriloquist !!
(Must be that superior European education).

I guess you speak, or at least understand, Spanish, because it is in your environment. Same goes for many other Americans. One TubeNetter once told he was brought up in a trilingual part of Texas: English, Spanish, and German. I lived in Germany my first 11 years, so I spoke Danish, high German, or low German depending on the environment. Low German mostly is a spoken language, so I have lost most of it. I only started writing high German again after Word gave me a quite good spell- and grammar checker a couple of versions back.

The ventriloquist thing only is a reference to the odd phenomenon that a certain blockhead here on TubeNet often share opinions, when it comes to music and instruments.

Klaus

From Miraphone's own website:

Ventile = valve
Zylinder = rotor (but obviously cylinder, which is ironic)
Perinet = piston

http://www.miraphone.de/