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I am looking at 4/4 CCs, and I am a bit confused. Why is it that a used 186 is around 4 or 5,000 and something like a PT-3 or PT-20 is around 8 grand? Is there really that much of a difference in quality between them?

Thanks.

daveinem wrote:I am looking at 4/4 CCs, and I am a bit confused. Why is it that a used 186 is around 4 or 5,000 and something like a PT-3 or PT-20 is around 8 grand? Is there really that much of a difference in quality between them?

Thanks.

The price of anything is determined by how much a buyer is willing to spend on it weighed against what the seller is willing to accept. It's a lot more complicated than that, but thats a nutshell version. Other factors that play into the Miraphone vs. B&S price difference are supply (lots of Mirapones out there) and marketing (B&S has been marketed very exclusively as a "premium" brand and sold at "premium" prices). Is there a huge quality gap between the two? IMHO, heck no.

I agree with the above... availability and new price are big factors, and so is age.

I've played both brands before, and they are both very fine professional-grade instruments of very high quality. Really, when it gets to instruments like these, it's not a matter of "what's better" as much as it is "what's a good match for me and what I need"?

That said, for me, the Miraphone 188 has been everything I want and need. It's a fantastic tuba.

daveinem wrote:I am looking at 4/4 CCs, and I am a bit confused. Why is it that a used 186 is around 4 or 5,000 and something like a PT-3 or PT-20 is around 8 grand? Is there really that much of a difference in quality between them?

Thanks.

There can be. But there is the physical quality of the instrument, and then there is the general "community wide" appraisal of an instrument's quality. E.g. the more people that say a horn is great and plays well, the more they would be willing to pay for it, and the more instrument makers will charge for it.

I could be wrong, but I think this is what has happened with Sam Gnagey's custom 4/4 CC tubas. I've seen them listed now at $7000, where I bought mine for $6000. I have my doubts if the new ones play $1000 better than the one I have, but word about the quality of these things is spreading. And having owned one for a while now, I don't see anything wrong with charging more for them. They are a great horn,