TubeNet

My experience dealing with Joe is he is very straight up, knowledgeable and critical (In a good way). If he gives this horn a thumbs up and I were looking I'd buy it without playing it, that's how much I trust his judgement. If I were looking for one do it all horn, I'd buy this in a heartbeat.

Owned since junior high school? Dang, thanks mom and dad.

Looks amazing!

Joe, what a gorgeous tuba. You want to take my rotary Neptune in trade? (fat chance).

Barry

Good luck Joe. I really wish I could buy this tuba.

Barry

If you can show this instrument next to a Thor, that would be an awesome educational photo.

Guess this means the tuba came home from DC with you.

Yes, I was blown away by this horn. There's some magic there. Everyone go try it.

Answer: marketing. I will say I'm not sure how much of the magic is the maw valves. I haven't played one in a long time without.

Joe-
Did you sell or keep the old Mirafone 186 CC? I did see a pic on Facebook of Roger Lewis playing a 1963 186 CC 5v at ITEC....
Mark

Cool old horn, Joe. I might consider getting a similar thing done to the left hand 5th on my 1960's 184. If it plays anything like my 184 it's a great tuba. That sharp thumb ring makes my thumb hurt just looking at it though. I had to wrap the one on mine with shoestring for some cushion.

bloke wrote:

arpthark wrote:Cool old horn, Joe. I might consider getting a similar thing done to the left hand 5th on my 1960's 184. If it plays anything like my 184 it's a great tuba. That sharp thumb ring makes my thumb hurt just looking at it though. I had to wrap the one on mine with shoestring for some cushion.

Again,
That's "some older tuba in Germany" that they using to build-and-fit that right-hand assembly (seen) for my tuba (which is here in Tennessee).
Mine is older than that one (3XXX), and (pre-invention) does not have the (what to call them...??) "wear screws" in the centers of the valve caps.
My thumb ring isn't adjustable, and probably more rounded. If not, sandpaper and buffing can make it more comfortable.

Oh, I getcha now. Like most Americans, I just look at the pretty pictures and glance over the text.

Where is the MW2155 located? Thank you!

Williston, TN....

What about the 186?

Have played this, great horn.

I found the comments about this being a "newer" version of the 2155 interesting. I got a new 2155 in 1997 when the model was relatively new on the market, and I kept it until 2001 or so. It had some huge pros, and some huge cons. The tuba was one of the most powerful, beautiful-sounding horns available ever in this size. It also had excellent intonation and low range. However, the valves were TERRIBLE (always hanging up, cheap springs, cheap valve guides), the bottom slides fell out, the back valve caps were inaccessible, the horn seemed too heavy/responded slowly, and the leadpipe seemed too perpendicular to the bell for a comfortable hand position. Many of these issues were improved on the 2000 model, but the early 2000s still had bad valves. Ron Bishop played a 2000 model for the rest of his career when he finally decided to retire his old Alexander around 2000 or so. The valves on it still sucked, and he was always trying to get them working properly. I don't know much about MAW valves, but they sound like a massive improvement over the old Meinl-Weston piston valves.