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Here's a link to a pretty exhaustive masters thesis comparing "real" Miraphones and varieties of clones. Also not 'pimping' anyone's product, but thought this was worthy of passing along.

UncleBeer wrote:Here's a link to a pretty exhaustive masters thesis comparing "real" Miraphones and varieties of clones. Also not 'pimping' anyone's product, but thought this was worthy of passing along.

Exhaustive???

Real Miraphones? - you mean - 1 Miraphone.

Variety of clones? You mean 1 make/model - 2 finishes - 2 horns total.

Lots of issues with this study beyond the sample size.

tofu wrote: Exhaustive???

"Exhaustive" in the sense that producing 57 pages of minutae on tuba comparisons sounds pretty exhausting to me.

Then angle of the planets, time of day, the season etc when the instrument was assembled? Or just plain good luck?

Lingon wrote:Then angle of the planets, time of day, the season etc when the instrument was assembled? Or just plain good luck?

Yes!

We will have a Mahler CC at ITEC for anyone who wishes to try.

I am playing one in concert myself this evening.

UncleBeer wrote:

tofu wrote: Exhaustive???

"Exhaustive" in the sense that producing 57 pages of minutae on tuba comparisons sounds pretty exhausting to me.

+1

Don't get me wrong - given the extreme limited resources of a college student it was a good attempt. It's just the scope of doing it correctly really would require vast more resources than the author had available. I give him kudos for taking a swing at it, as it certainly was an attempt at quantifying what many had anecdotally thought.

I bought a Mack brass clone a few years ago. Last week, Matt Walters spent some time with it on his bench and I am amazed with it, now.

bloke wrote:...I'm not bragging on my friend's acquisition or pushing one Chinese tuba seller over another...so I'm neither identifying the vendor...

Just to be sure about the model I headed over to the Jinbao website, but perhaps the instrument you talked about does not originate from Jinbao. Anyway, I searched the catalog and am not sure but did you mean this one, so informatively described at their site?

I owned a clone for a short period of time (not the Mira clone but the HB clone). I had a very similar experience with the intonation. It was just just bang on all the way up and down. It was actually kinda creepy how good it was. Sound was super dark (almost too much). There were some definite stuffiness issues in the low middle register though that I am hoping have since been worked out. If so I will probably pick up another again in the future.

Joe might like this, but I found the horn to be completely mouthpiece insensitive. It literally did not seem to matter what I put in the receiver. That's both good and bad depending on how you look at it. Ironically the lone exception to this was the mouthpiece which came with the horn. Step backwards for me.

Not dropping a brand name here, but if you want details feel free to PM me.

PM if interested in details of the magical clone

This thread reminds me of my enthusiasm when I bought a Mira-clone a few years ago.

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Ace

chronolith wrote:I owned a clone for a short period of time (not the Mira clone but the HB clone). I had a very similar experience with the intonation. It was just just bang on all the way up and down. It was actually kinda creepy how good it was. Sound was super dark (almost too much). There were some definite stuffiness issues in the low middle register though that I am hoping have since been worked out. If so I will probably pick up another again in the future.

I think much of that issue may have been related to the horn from which it was copied.

MartyNeilan wrote:

chronolith wrote:I owned a clone for a short period of time (not the Mira clone but the HB clone). I had a very similar experience with the intonation. It was just just bang on all the way up and down. It was actually kinda creepy how good it was. Sound was super dark (almost too much). There were some definite stuffiness issues in the low middle register though that I am hoping have since been worked out. If so I will probably pick up another again in the future.

I think much of that issue may have been related to the horn from which it was copied.

The new 5-valve Luzern plays a lot better than the previous 4 valve. Not only my view, but that of some very good players who have tried and a customer than owns both

I have never actually played the Hirsbrunner that inspired the clone so I can't speak to the genetics of it. Perhaps someone else can verify the symptom. On the horn playing a C below the staff (4th valve - it's a BBb horn) was a little more work than it should have been, but not terrible by any stretch. The B natural was even moreso, to the point of distraction. The real kicker for me was a transition from an open Bb to B natural felt like trying to spit a stuck football out of bell (probably grossly overstating things, but you get my point). I ran all the checks and made sure there was nothing occluding the pipe. Checked the rotary alignment, etc.

Perhaps it was just the individual instrument, but I went back and forth for some time trying to decide if I wanted to sell it or not. The horn really had a lot of things going for it. I miss it.

Hi-
Have to say that I just picked up a new Mira-clone CC myself from Florida to use as a back-up. I have had three of these previously, and by far, the new ones are even better! Slide alignment is excellent, valves smooth and great compression, pitch is right on the money, etc. -- even more 'bang for the buck' on these horns. JinBao is definitely improving the quality of their product(s).....
Mark

jonesmj wrote:Hi-
Have to say that I just picked up a new Mira-clone CC myself to use as a back-up. I have had three of these previously, and by far, the new ones are even better! Slide alignment is excellent, valves smooth and great compression, pitch is right on the money, etc. -- even more 'bang for the buck' on these horns. JinBao is definitely improving the quality of their product(s).....
Mark

Tubas come and go, but this one stays. It's hard to imagine anyone would value mine higher than I do, so it's hard to imagine ever selling it. It is totally dependable, regardless what else might seem fancier, or have a more prestigious name on the bell, or look more interesting, or for whatever reason seem more cool to me or somebody else in the music room. And that means it goes out of the house far more often than anything else that might be hanging around at the moment.

jonesmj wrote: JinBao is definitely improving the quality of their product(s).....

That is not surprising - the commitment of the staff, electric atmosphere and can do anything attitude is incredible! Not a tuba (a french horn), but just see this fine apprentice work a young man was proud to show us when visiting last week...

And they do take note of feedback. As an example, last December while visiting I told the Production Manager the collars for connecting sousaphone bells were just not satisfactory - too easy distorted and often difficult to connect. They have obviously taken note as not just sousaphones for Wessex, but all sousaphones from Jinbao now have robust collars modelled on the Conn design.