Miraphone 188 valve question

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kingrob76
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Miraphone 188 valve question

Post by kingrob76 »

Can anyone shed some light on these:

http://tinyurl.com/2hena5

I've never seen valve quite like this but if I recall Miraphone played around with "adjustable" tension valves for a while - might these be they? Any help is appreciated.


Rob
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J.c. Sherman
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Post by J.c. Sherman »

Miraphone marcketed this system, along with the "DVS" system in the late 80's early 90's. Never saw one in real life, but older TUBA journals from this period will give more information.

Not sure what was wrong with them, or what was supposed to be better. Looks a little clumsey to me, with easily damaged springs.

J.c.S.
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Slamson
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Post by Slamson »

A triumph of german engineering -
A disaster for german manufacturing.
The School I teach at bought one of the 188s with the Prestos on it (gee, must have been over 10 years ago!). When it came I started playing it and really loved everything - the tone was great, and I monkeyed around all afternoon adjusting the valves just to see what they could do. Lots of fun, and they could really snap for the "black fastees" if you wanted them to.
Fast forward about a year....
The springs have been run hard by a applied major who's been learning every Clarke cornet solo in the book. Now they sag like the fat from my Aunt Helen's forearms. Slop, slop, slop.
We put in new springs, but in no time they get maxed out too.
Then the bracket holding the assembly snapped off...
For some reason in a conversation with Roger Lewis last year at midwest, I think he mentioned that the conversion back to direct linkage is about $300 (plus labor). While it was a fun experiment, the "Presto" was just a "flash in the pan".

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Chriss2760
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Post by Chriss2760 »

FWIW
My 186 came new from WWBW with this system in 1995. I didn't order it, it just showed up that way. Very light and very fast. The only problem I've had was breaking the solder loose where the vertical support posts mounted perpendicularly to the bases, (a "butted" joint.) I'm certain that the stresses of traveling in a gig bag, as opposed to a hard case, contributed to the failure as the valve actuator support frame stands up really high. I machined a couple of brass blocks to secure and reinforce this point and haven't had any further problems.
I find that I rarely adjust the spring tension. I set them with just enough tension to keep the rotors from coming off-stop.
Chris.
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