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Hello everyone,

Does anyone know if there's a manufacturer today that is still producing diagonally oriented 4 valve sets in .750 bore, or something relatively close?

Thanks,

Bob

Hi KiltieTuba,

I was thinking along the lines of the old Bohm and Meinl valve sets (19 mm/.748, I believe).

I didn't know Mirafone was making a 4 valve sousaphone these days...

bloke wrote:Taiwan, Brazil, and Communist Chinese 4-valve sousaphones (.728")

Ah, yes. Those Communist valves always make me want to patriotically march in formation to the sounds of screaming political prisoners.

Does this qualify?

http://www.miraphone.de/en/en_modeldeta ... =1&lang=en

Elephant,

You might be right. But, he didn't specify AND.. Marzan made slant rotor horns too. Also, the four valve Miraphone sousa is a rotor instrument.

Besides.. we all know that there is no practical different between pistons and rotors.. right?

My default setting is rotary valves.. no good reason for that.. but it never occurred to me that he would want a slant piston set.

Taylor has one of the Miraphone 289's on their website at a good price.

Thanks everyone,

Wade is correct - I was referring to piston valves. Sorry for any confusion I might have caused.

The Mirafone sousaphone valves look like a great idea, but I can't seem to find any specifications for them on the Internet.

Does Mirafone make their own valves, or do they source them out?

Bloke,

Do you think they also make their own piston valves? If not, who might be their supplier?

The specs for their new 4 valve sousaphone doesn't seem to be on their website, so it's probably not in production as of yet.

I honestly don't have very much experience with Mirafone rotary horns, so I wouldn't be qualified to judge their quality.

Bob

Mark,

I'm absolutely certain they are. Maybe I misspoke when I used the word "quality" (I probably should have written "qualities"). My point is that since I have never owned any rotary valve tubas, I am not in a position to make any comments as to how they "handle", compared to other manufacturers.

No offense was intended to Mirafone, Mirafone owners, or rotary valves in general...

Bob

Alexander buys valves and connecting ferrules. I used to have a link to the company but have lost it and cannot remember the name. However, they also supply Dan Rauch for all his French horns. Or they did for years if not so today. (I cannot attest to Rauch horns today. I have not seen a new one for years.) But he told my wife that he used new "Alex" parts that he purchased from their supplier. (This was back when she lived over there and studied with Frøydis.)

Alexander does certainly buy the valves from J. Meinlschmidt http://jm-gmbh.de/index.html
At least they refer to Alexander. Not only for tubas but also for French horns. They have a very good reputation.
Regards,
Lars

*

P.S. - if I came to the wrong conclusions above, I'm sorry for that too

At the risk of hi-jacking this thread to satisfy my curiosity:

Watching the video of the rotary valve assembly raises a question for me: Are the newest valves built with a nickel sleeve inside the casing?

They show the valve ports installed on the casing and historically manufacturers have simply honed the inside round to accept the rotor. BUT in the video they show a rotor body spinning inside what looks like a nickel sleeve. Is that for demonstration purposes or an improved manufacturing step?

I could imagine a lot of theoretical potential benefits from a sleeved casing both from the manufacturing side and from a performance maintenance standpoint.

Thoughts?