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Does anyone know the story on the spelling change? I know the company at one point was called "Mirafone" and was based in Sun Valley, CA. I'm guessing the two are the same company, or somehow related. What's the deal-ee-oh?

from http://www.miraphone.de/
(click on the British flag at the center top to get an English version)

<Company/History>
"Popularity Grows

In the following years, worldwide demand for high-quality brass instruments grew immensely. Requests for Miraphone, in particular from the United States, caused the Miraphone company to be world famous in a very short time. Such tuba legends as Roger Bobo and R. Winston Morris worked to further Miraphone’s popularity. The double triangle logo was adopted with Miraphone spelled as Mirafone…a spelling believed to be closer to modern U.S. English. The second triangle and the “fâ€

AFAIK, the "f"spelling was used for instruments intended for export to the USA. I suspect the reason was a trademark issue.

Here it is...

learn something new everyday... from the miraphone website...

The standard tuning of our instruments lies at 443 Hertz, which is standard for Europe. We also make instruments tuned to 440 Hertz for the United States. Should you have a different tuning requirement, please let us know

Hmmmm...that is interesting about the tuning...

My yamaha 642 is a "Maestro", intended for sale in the UK...I wonder if it is pitched a little bit sharper than a US model? (and yes, I do know how to tune an instrument...I just suspect that if it is tuned 3 cents sharp, the slide would be out only a little bit further than usual to get 440 tuning.)

Jonathantuba wrote:

Jonathan Cruz wrote:learn something new everyday... from the miraphone website...

The standard tuning of our instruments lies at 443 Hertz, which is standard for Europe. We also make instruments tuned to 440 Hertz for the United States. Should you have a different tuning requirement, please let us know

I was supprised to read that. Is tuning really different in the USA to Europe? If so do other manufactures produce instruments in different pitches accordingly (e.g. Is Meinl-Weston pitched differently to Melton - the same company's trade name in Europe)?

Well, they say it's a European standard. But in my experience the 443 standard is mostly German. In Holland it's 441-442, in Belgium and France 440-441 and in Russia they're closer to 445. There's a lot of work left for the EU bureaucrats

The difference in pitch is about 1%, which on a BBb comes to about 2 inches for the main tuning slide, and fractions of inches for the valves. I would think most tuning slides have that much room for adjustment anyway to cope with temperature differences?

MW tubas are available with longer or shorter main tuning slides; the longer is for A=440Hz.

Some USA orchestras use a pitch standard around A=443Hz. They give theological-sounding arguments in favor of the higher pitch. I say, if higher is better, why not just transpose the music up?

A.

Allen wrote: I say, if higher is better, why not just transpose the music up?

Because if the double reeds were in tune, nobody would know what to gripe about!

windshieldbug wrote:... if the double reeds were in tune, nobody would know what to gripe about!

Don't worry, they'd find something ...