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Okay guys, I have a question for yall..... I just recently purchased a miraphone 1291 5VC. I was playing yesterday and the number 2 slide just popped out, landing with a loud and painful clang on the floor. it wasnt damaged really beyond a tiny little dent thank goodness...... but today a similar thing happened. the third valve slide just popped out playing normally and fell to the ground. This time the dent was VERY noticeable and made me feel sick. what causes this and is there anything I can do to prevent such things from happening?

sorry for the double post, but I have another question: How often should I expect to oil new pistons? I am a little worried about overdoing it... I use blue juice.

Well, the only thing I can think of (if this happened while playing) is that you're trying to push and pull slides on the fly and have such tight new valves and such pressure built up that it's shooting your slides back out, but I've never heard of "shooting slides."

As for oiling, do it everyday. Blue Juice is fine.

I also own a Mira 1291 C Tuba. I've had no problems with "slide popping" for all the 9 months i've had it. And as for the number two slide; that slide points up. That must have been pretty surprising. I don't know which one you are talking about, but the 3rd slide has two ends to it. Maybe if you've greased the bottom end too much, it could possibly just slip out, i don't know. As DirtyErnie said all the valves are vented, minus the rotor valve, so pressure build up would be the cause of it, unless your valves didn't get vented for some reason (i think you should check this: look for a hole about a half an inch from the bottom of the piston. If it's there, it's vented.) Also for your question about oiling valves, oil them everytime you are done practicing for about the first month. Then you can back off a little, but you still want to oil them pretty consistently, at least once every two or three days.

A dab of Hetman's Ultra Slide grease will do the trick. I had the same problem on my Nirschl.

If they continue to fall out, take it to a repair shop and ask them to expand the inner tubes.

yeah... okay, to clarify... this is really weird....

#2 slide just literallly shot off once. And when I say shot I mean shot. (landed about three feet away with no real damage thankfully) number three slide (the bottom one) likes to extend itself until its barely hanging on, then it falls off. I want to aviod this, without repair work hopefully. Thanks for the suggestions!

If you really want to avoid the repair shop you could ever so slightly bend the slides in or out. This wouldn't be the greatest option but I did it on the conn 5j I use because the lower slide on the first valve fell out all the time and there was no money for repair work at the time. I personally wouldn't do that to my new horn either but it won't cost you anything now. And fot all the repair people out there, I know it's bad but it worked for me.

Ben

I got my miraphone 1291 2 weeks ago and I actually have the opposite problem. I grease my slides regularly and I cant get my 2nd and 5th slide to move at all

I have a 1291, and I too had the third valve problem. My main slide, too, falls out all the time, unless I take the super-sticky slide grease that came with the horn and put ridiculous amounts on. I tried the stickiest kind of Hetman's, and when I played you could literally see the slide going down.

About the second slide shooting off... I think it's possessed. The pistons should be vented, so there's no logical explaination. I'd check with your priest and have the horn exorcized.

It's the only way.

i own the 4 valve BBb version of the 1291, and i have exactly the same problem with the main tuning slide being too loose. i use liberal amounts of hetman's ultra slide grease, and it mostly works. i try to keep an eye on it as i play, as it will eventually work its way down. i am amazed at how common this problem seems to be. i had figured myself to be the only lucky one.

-Zack

Yeah I agree. I think it is possesed. I really just want to play the horn and not worry about it, but this problem is very much at the forefront of my mind everytime I sit down with it. I am kind of miffed that I payed 6,000 dollars for a horn and it has a stupid problem like that. Other than that the 1291 continues to surprise me in a good way.

In the comunity orchestra I play in all of the trombones have the tuning slide on the slde itself but it uses like a screw and a nut, very similar to the 3rd valve slide on some trumpets, that holds it in position. how hard would this be for a repairman to do to a tuba? You would probably have to get a bit long screw and mad it so you could disengage on end to be able to remove the slide completely for greasing and such. just an idea.

Ben

TubaNewsRose wrote:I'm surprised nobody said this yet...
In the meantime, how about a piece of string to keep it from falling off...low tech but also low budget.

Rose,

I think it is beacuse no woman had posted yet. We men like to break into over-engineering mode first unless it can involve duct tape or #9 wire.

TubaNewsRose wrote:I'm surprised nobody said this yet...

In the meantime, how about a piece of string to keep it from falling off...low tech but also low budget.

HA! I was getting ready to say that myself, after I finished the thread.
Woman brain.

MA

the problem with a piece of string is that it requires a small amount of forethought and planning, and really, who can be bothered with that?

on the other hand, a strip of cloth torn from a dirty rag in your case....

-Zack

Is there is crud built up or in the vents on the pistons? Perhaps a good cleaning could help.

Secondly, I would use a heavy, stickier cream of some kind. If this didn't work, I'd fork over the money to take it to a pro.

I have never had a problem like this with my Mirafone 186 BBb.

The third, and I think the best soloution is to just trade me straight across.

-Tabor

My teacher suggested the string thing, the only issue is that there's not a really good way to get it on the number three slide, and I usually use both of them to dump water. Also, with the string on the main slide, tuning becomes a bit of an issue.

If it is a new tuba, shouldn't it have a warranty? You could probably bring it to a shop that deals Mira stuff and they might do it for free under the warranty. Otherwise, I doubt having the tubes expanded would cost very much.

good news! I think slathering the slide with grease solved the problem. I also very gently and carefully moved the slides outward a miniscule amount, and they seemed to spring back into place. Afterwards the slide seemed to slide in and out at the perfect velocity. Now I can go back to learning fingerings\, and not worrying about slides popping out.