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I found an old Meinl Weston 33 tuba for sale in fairly good shape for $3400. I have never heard anything about them before and was wondering what people thought about them. I am looking to buy a horn but I was holding out for a Miraphone 186 or 188 to pop up near me. Would this be a nice alternative?

Yes, go and play test, these are great tubas.

If you are referring to the one for sale by tubadoctor, it used to be mine. It was a good playing horn, an I know he has done a lot of work i it to make it a great horn.

I've never played the removeable bell version, but the 32's I've played have been great horns. Imagine a 186 but a little more punch. In general these older 'Getzen' Meinl Westons were built like tanks. I like that feel in a horn!

I have the MW30. The horn has a beautiful, dark German sound. I very much love my horn. Go play test it!

bigboymusic wrote:I've never played the removeable bell version, but the 32's I've played have been great horns. Imagine a 186 but a little more punch. In general these older 'Getzen' Meinl Westons were built like tanks. I like that feel in a horn!

I agree with all of this!

Besides "more punch," I would add that the sound is darker than a 186, and less "bark" to the sound. I think you're getting a lot of tuba for the money.

Ya mean Meinl-Weston

The 33, 32 and 30 models have the same bugle.
Played the M-W 32 years ago and really enjoyed it. It was a sweet tuba that played very well. Very good build, pitch, response, nice sound. Like others have said; think of a Miraphone 186 with a more rounded, slightly darker sound color and you have the M-W 33/32/30. Great all-around/chamber tuba. Kind of an underrated tuba. I think I liked the model 32 more than the 37 B.Bell model.

I agree with most of the sentiment here, the whole 30s series are great all around CC tubas, incredibly reliable and fun to play ill never know why these never got even close to as popular as the 186

^ Probably a topic for another thread, but I think Miraphone had some pretty aggressive marketing in the 70s and 80s.