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I have a I believe 1972 miraphone 186/188 and I am now in the process of selling it and during this process I have now been asked twice if this is a 186 or 188 and I was wondering if there are some people out there that could give me a general consensus the serial number is 72727 and pictures are here http://s1178.photobucket.com/albums/x373/Nick_Allen2/" target="_blank thanks for any help

A few things to add/question:

-- It's a MiraFone, not Miraphone (a slight branding change they made in the 80's when importing to the US). So, this is probably from the mid 80's?
-- Valve section is all nickel silver.
-- Is this gold brass?

It looks a lot like my Mirafone 188, which is gold brass, all nickel silver valve section, and s/n 13727.

A little hard to tell based on the picture quality (not knocking it, just saying...). I would guess it's a 188 b/c of the fatter bottom bow and the similarities to my tuba. The bell does look a little smaller though?

So, no promises on anything, just my observations.

It's a 188. I base (pun intended) my conclusion on the single 90 degree bend from the valve block into the tuning slide. The 186 has a "dogleg" at this point. Also, the bottom bow is larger than a 186. Also, if it is an early '70's tuba, it would have a 4-digit serial number. So it's either later than that, or the number you quoted is an inventory number engraved into it by the entity that used to own it.

The plastic ball linkage and the style of the linkage (a little bit fancy) is also the same as mine. If it's gold brass, it's probably just like mine.

And regardless, I'll bet it rocks!

If it was made in 1972 it is a 186.

The 188 was not in production until the summer of 1981. I should know, I had one from the first shipment of three.
There were three or four prototypes that were used by various players before that time: Roger Bobo and Tommy Johnson both had pre production prototypes starting in 1980.

Measure the bell, if it's an older 186 the bell should be about 16 1/12" or so. The 188 (and the 186's made after the late 1990's) measure 17 3/4".

Norm

What makes you think that your tuba was made in 1972?

Here's a serial number list:
http://www.musictrader.com/mirafone.html" target="_blank

Your tuba has a much larger five digit serial number than anything in that chart. The chart ends at 1979. That would make your tuba much much newer than you think it is.

I did use that website and I looked at the numbers wrong so I guess my tuba is much newer that I thought and it is a 188 after remeasuring the bell

And It is gold brass

Only the BBb 186's had a dogleg. The C's had the tube going straight down from the valveset to the right angle to the tuning slide. Only the BBb's also had the dogleg at the end of the leadpipe going into the valves. I think. Ed

I just got an email from miraphone telling me my tuba is a 188 built in 1984 thanks for the help! I had the serial number wrong it was 12727