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joh_tuba wrote:

bloke wrote:If you just order .835" bore rotors from Eva, I couldn't imagine them sending you anything other than but what I described...
I guess (??) they would be OK (along with tubing) for add-a-5th-valve projects.

It's interesting how Miraphone's bore sizes are rarely even mm's...
ex: 21.2mm (.83464567")

21.2mm is also the bore size on a the Cerveny Piggy and other large horns. Perhaps there is a historical manufacturing reason why they both picked that size.

It's probably the standard size that was available in Grazlitz, where all these fine old marques came from originally.

Ironically, the horn that Heiko had with him was a B&S F. I'm not even sure of the model number (it might have been a Symphonie), I was an avowed F tuba hater at the time. He sounded very good on that horn though and I'm sure he helped MW design the horn with his name on it to be similar to that horn. I do remember speaking with him about why I disliked F tubas (the missing low range) and he agreed it was something that he had to work on to make functional on his horn. I imagine that his MW design probably also tried to address that.

It makes me wonder if current students know just how lucky they are to have access to instruments that play so much better than the ones we had 40 years ago. The current production F tubas are so good that I would definitely consider one as my primary bass tuba. That could not be said when I was in college, they were simply such problematic horns to play in tune and even respond in the lower range. Today's instruments play like a dream! I had a student graduate last year and he has a MW 45slp F tuba. That horn plays great! I felt compelled to select an Eb when I was in school, nowadays that wouldn't be the case. I know some reminisce about those old F tubas but I never saw the attraction. Simply too much baggage and difficulty for what you get.