For people like Bob :)
Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2010 7:41 pm
FWIW, I like my Kanstul but if I had found a nice, clean Miraphone for $3000 I would have gone for that (I definitely would have gone for a clean no valve Bb for $1500-2000!!!)*. I'm actually in a bit of a mental mess now- my Kanstul is neither bass enough nor contra enough to really make me happy. I liked the sound of my old small bore F, but that horn had problems enough to not keep it.
Since I really don't need 2 low trombones, especially given how much one of them costs, I'm considering getting an indy bass (or, getting a 1052 bell section, keeping my dual bore 1062 slide, and selling my 1062 bell section) and having the G bass/contra thing done to it. Maybe even with the stock bell as I rather like the sound of a low bass.
I already have like 5 buyers for the contra
but before anything happens I need to settle up with UPS... 
I like how these things sound, and given that the big-and-low attitude of many(/most?) US bass trombonists I think they are viable horns and in a trombone choir probably a better fit than an F. A kickin big bore double slide F and a double slide Bb would be quite a fun pair!
Going off the little I know about Mira. contras, this one should have a bass trombone shank and possibly the larger bore slide (which may be just the first slide, as I have heard that the current ones are .54x on the 1st but still .59x on the 2nd slide) though it DOES look like a Helleberg stuck in it...
*I probably should have gone with a valved cimbasso over anything with a slide as the primary pitch approximator. Oh well...