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For those of you who have done the 1291 mod to change out the lead pipe to a 1292 leadpipe, I have a couple questions.

If you purchased the raw brass leadpipe, did it come unfinished or was it buffed and ready to be lacquered/silver plated before installing on your horn?

Was the change of leadpipe worth the expense?

Billy M. wrote:Morphine 1292 leadpipe

Can you buy it without a doctor's prescription?

If so, I'm gonna get one for all my horns!

To answer your last question first, yes, it was very much worth it to me to do this change. For me, it improved the response and slotting, and the small amount of extra resistance in the low register gave me more stability and clarity. Very, very well worth it in my opinion. When I sold my 1291 to an *excellent* professional player in the midwest, he really liked the horn as well. I can't say how much of that is because of the leadpipe, but hey, I guess it didn't screw it up.

I ordered mine through Dan Oberloh, and here's what I got:

* 1292 leadpipe in unpolished, unlacquered nickel silver
* Euro receiver
* $210 for the parts, plus $18 to have Dan polish it for me, plus a little bit for shipping
* $120 for installation at Baltimore Brass

So, all told, it cost a little more than $350 for everything. I think the current price on WWBW is about $250 for the leadpipe with NO receiver, but you could easily have the receiver from your 1291 leadpipe put onto the 1292 leadpipe.

I suppose you could have the part lacquered or silver plated, but honestly, I think the unfinished nickel silver is a nice look on a lacquered horn.

Hope that helps!

roweenie wrote:

Billy M. wrote:Morphine 1292 leadpipe

Can you buy it without a doctor's prescription?

If so, I'm gonna get one for all my horns!

Damn autocorrect...

bort wrote:I suppose you could have the part lacquered or silver plated, but honestly, I think the unfinished nickel silver is a nice look on a lacquered horn.

Hope that helps!

My horn is silver plated so getting a raw brass one and having it plated in silver by Anderson's is WAY cheaper than buying a silver plated one. Plus, the nickel silver would stand out awkwardly against the regular silver of the horn.

Interesting, is there an rotary equivalent? Meaning an alternate leadpipe for the 191?

Oh, yeah, that would look strange then.

For the 191, you want what you already have. The 1291 is a good horn, but a bit of a mess. Alan Baer wanted something different when he designed those, which ended up being the 1292. Subtle, but important differences. Al himself recommended changing the leadpipe, and it was a great idea.

I miss my old 1291...

The best person to talk to about this is Roger Lewis. A few years ago I purchased a 1293. Roger was a great deal of help in the transaction and I owe him much for his help. The 1293 is almost the same as the 1291 & 1292 with only a few changes that aren't really important for this discussion. The 1293 comes with 2 removable lead pipes. The first is larger pipe with a with a smaller (American) shank receiver that I believe was used on the 1291. The other pipe was a smaller pipe with a larger (Euro shank) receiver that I believe was used on the 1292. I talking with Roger he suggested that I have Miraphone build me a custom pipe that had the smaller pipe and the smaller (American) receiver. I feel that this combination is significantly better than the other two and I have had the opportunity to play them all in the same horn. As a side note I took the custom lead pipe to ITEC Indiana and Mike Forbes played it on the 1293 he was getting and he also loved it. Through the course of things I had wound up with a spare custom lead pipe which I passed along to Mike at a very reasonable price. Sam Pilafian has played the horn with the custom lead pipe and stated that my 1293 was one of the best he had ever played. He sounded great but he sounds great on anything.. I hope this is of some help. Phil

Roger is great! Not sure why I didn't think of that myself!

Both Richard Murrow and Roger Lewis have the 1291 tuba with the 1292 pipe and the 1291 American receiver. While visiting Richard at his home last year, I got to play his 1291. I was very impressed with how the notes seems to slot better and were more focused with that set up. So, I ordered the 1291 American receiver for my 1292 and had a local repair person install it. I feel this is the best set up for me too.

In case you're interested, I just noticed that WWBW has a 1292 leadpipe listed on ebay for $110.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Miraphone-Mirap ... 2098570993