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This summer I made a trip out to Miraphone, concentrating most of my time on the F tubas but also spent a little time on the BBb’s. When I got back to the hotel I tried to remember as best I could the specific’s. I hope I remembered things correctly. It was a long day. I’ve also made pictures as best I could.

The Firebird and Belcanto share the same valve section (mouthpipe?) but after this the Belcanto moves on to be a larger tuba. Miraphone says that this has made for a more beautiful sounding and easy playing tuba but with more difficult intonation. The Belcanto will be discontinued.

I believe they said Elektra starts out with a smaller mouthpipe then the Firebird/Belcanto. The graduation in the valve boring of the Elektra is larger so that the exit bore is larger.

All three tubas played played effortlessly. The intonation on the Elektra is better (which is why they designed it) but also required a little more work higher up. Not so much that I would choose an tad easier high register over intonation.

The 5v versions of these tubas played a bit freer then the 6v versions. Then again the 6v versions all played free enough to enjoy myself and play what I wanted to play, except better in tune.

There were also gold brass versions of everything. It seems like the sound is a tad warmer but requires a bit more air to do the work. It’s such a small differenced that if I were buying one of these tubas I would have chosen the one with the best intonation and not based my opinion on alloy.
The 8th p in particular was really in tune by only one of the Elektra’s. With the other’s it was for my taste uncomfortably low. I ran into the same thing when I traveled to FMB; all the Elektra’s had that low 8thp except for one.

Siegfried and Hagen 497 are almost the same partially hand-made instruments and share almost all of the same parts.
Difference: Bell is larger on the 497 but the mouthpipe starts smaller. The mouthpipe on the Siegfried and the 497 are hand bent. Between the valves the knuckles make sharp angles (not rounded like the Siegfried). Miraphone says the idea is that even though the Siegfried gives a fine sound to the player it wasn’t reaching the audience as well as desired. The 497 does this better (according to Miraphone). The 497 does play a bit tighter but also more freely. Is this because of the design difference, the absence of a 5th valve or a combination of the both? Your guess is as good as mine There was a second Seigfried (in silver) but for me the brass one played better.

497 and 496 are the same until after the valve section where the 496 moves on towards a smaller bell. The 496 is for the rest not hand-made (as far as I know).

(Edit made today; I forgot to write down what parts are the same after the valves between the 496 and the 91. I’m almost sure they swapped-out some bows, etc)
91 is larger than the Hagen 495.
91A played easier then the 1291
The 4v 1291 played easier then the 5v 1291

I hope this was a little bit interesting.

Very good post. Thank you for taking the time to do this here.

The thing that surprised me the most was the two sharp angles placed in the 497’s valve nuckles (is this the correct term?). I’d never heard of using sharp angles in brass instruments, but there it was (except maybe the very rare kastenventiel=boxvalves). I’m really sorry I didn’t get a picture of that.

This is great, thanks!!

Is there a free tasting room at the end of the tour??

I would love to see this in person someday.

Thanks for sharing!

I noticed that right away as well. Just looked too tuba-ish!

Ok, something else REALLY surprised me; the Miraphone testing room isn't set up for testing at all. Too many hard surfaces (tiled floor, lots of tubas, etc.). It was like testing a tuba in the kitchen. I didn't expect that from one of the most prolific tuba factories on the planet.

bloke wrote:It's just that it looks to have been installed by tuba builders.

If it had been installed by tuba builders:

Clearly, that is a 8th valve bottom bow for the upcoming 9/4 sub-contra tenor tuba.

pjv wrote:Ok, something else REALLY surprised me; the Miraphone testing room isn't set up for testing at all. Too many hard surfaces (tiled floor, lots of tubas, etc.). It was like testing a tuba in the kitchen. I didn't expect that from one of the most prolific tuba factories on the planet.

The other thing that struck me when I visited (and this isn't particularly surprising, but it's just one of those things that you don't think about when you look at a picture online) is that the tuba room is very hot temperature-wise, and smells of smoke. In fact, the entire factory smells of smoke, which I guess is par for the course in a rural German factory. The tuba room had a row of windows open, which helped a bit, but the room itself was very stuffy and not really conducive of playing your best IMO.

Employee cigarette smoke or brazing/torch smoke??

Both...??

Three Valves wrote:Employee cigarette smoke or brazing/torch smoke??

Employee smoke, sorry should have been more clear.

Nasty

Pjv can you elaborate on a comparison of the 6 valve firebird and Elektra? Was the design of 5 and 6 on the Elektra being now below 4 an improvement? How about the long bass clarinet linkage?

The long linkage, which many tubas sport nowadays, is certainly not a problem with a Miraphone. Their amazingly light rotary valves are (in my opinion) head and shoulders above those of any other manufacturer out on the market today. Every virtuosic passage I played was just so much crisper and cleaner on these horns, which is typical of Miraphone.
I wonder why they seem to be the only company capable of doing this.

I'm not sure what you mean by "below 4".
4th partial?
4th valve.
If it's about the lower register intonation (which is what I think you mean) I was duly impressed and could effortlessly play in tune throughout the entire 2nd p.
Comparing the two I like the set-up better on the Elektra; the 5th (top valve key) being longer than the 6th.
Which is not exactly your question. I didn't go into comparing the playing characteristics of these fine F-tubas but concentrated on the tuba w/only the very best intonation.
I found this (sadly) in only one of the Elektra's.
I hope this helps.

bloke wrote:

From what i understand is that these were left over from the failed attempts at making the new 11/4 bass tuba with 3 valves, they were going to call it the Hindenburg but it went up in flames so it was scrapped by RnD. The idea was to make a rotary F without resistance in the lower register and create the perfect do it all F tuba that could be used in the most intricate solos to Fountains.