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http://m.ebay.com/itm/351424343620" target="_blank I'm considering making this person an offer and getting this miraphone back in fairly nice shape, the bell really concerns me though, any repairmen want to tune in an opinion on how "bad" this really is? The rest of the body doesn't look too bad though but that ridiculous can crush bell just ruins it.

I'm not a true "repairman", but I've played an old silver Mirafone BBb just like that tuba, though the bell wasn't as badly creased. I think you could hammer/burnish out much of those creases in the bell. You might get a couple small cracks, though, as the creases are pretty deep. You can do even better dent work if you unsolder the kranz, but that would be much more trouble. But I still believe you can get those creases out at least 80% without unsoldering the kranz. The BIN is a little high, imo. I'd say make an offer on it --- those older Mirafones are pretty sweet.

It looks frightening. Dan Oberloh got a few of these in this sort of shape a number of years ago and restored them for sale. He had to get them pretty cheap and work on them between other paying jobs for a long time to make any dough. There are some pictures of the process on his website.

Unless you have the skills to fix it yourself, it will be much, much cheaper to hunt for a silver 186 which is already in acceptable shape. Maybe a few dents, maybe a little valve work needed but pretty solid.

Run, don't walk, from this.

If you like it because of the silver plate, know that that red stuff is raw brass where the silver has worn completely off. Silver tarnishes black or grayish pink. That red-brown stuff is a patina on the holes in the silver plate.

The leadpipe patches look good from the outside. I guess on the bright side, it's a testament to the 186 that something as trashed as that goes on auction for that price, and who knows, maybe even sells.