MiraFone what?

[MaryAnn]

Last saturday I saw a set by a dixieland trio that had a great tuba player. Five rotors, with the 5th a left hand paddle. Older MiraFone CC tuba. It had a diamond etched in the bell with a lady's face in it. He didn't seem to know what model tuba it was. He got a great range out of it...G above the staff with clear, beautiful tone, and the D above pedal C at PPP also with beautiful tone. And no slide pulling at all, with intonation that seemed perfect to my ears. 1-2 for E in the staff, but I didn't see anything else I could nail in terms of cross- fingerings. It looked like a 4/4 to me but could have been a 5/4; not all that stove-pipe-y either, more squatty than I think of most Mphones.

Can someone tell me what this likely was? I didn't have a camara with me. Just curious.

MA

[iiipopes]

It's the same company.

For some reason, decades ago, when Miraphone only had one importer/distributor, and that on the West Coast, that importer/distributor asked the company to engrave the horns as Mirafone instead of Miraphone. My 1971 186BBb is engraved with the "f" instead of the "ph."

Why? Who knows! To emphasize the German origin of the country and the attendent spelling, like the company Telefunken is with an "f" instead of a "ph"? But that doesn't make any sense, because the recording company is Deutsche Gramophone, with a "ph" instead of an "f."

In any event, after that particular import/distribution contract expired, the company went back to engraving the bells Miraphone on everything.

[Rick Denney]

It's the same company.

Yes, but that doesn't seem to be the question. (There was, by the way, apparently a trademark conflict in the U.S. with "Miraphone" at the time the folks in Sun Valley formed the "Mirafone U.S.A. Corporation". That was the U.S. subsidiary that served as the distributor.)

The question seems to be concerning a Miraphone CC tuba with a left-hand fifth valve that seems to have a wider bell than current models and a diamond-shaped engraving.

The older Mirafone tubas from the 70s had narrower bells than the newer ones, and that might account for the perceived difference in bell shape. The bells were maybe 1-1/2 or 2 inches smaller in diameter than current models. As to the diamond-shaped logo, I've never seen it so I don't know. My mid-70's Miraphone (branded Mirafone) has the standard triangular logo engraved on the bell. TubaRay has a 5-valve CC 186 with a left-hand-operated fifth valve, so that's not unusual for the time. I don't think they started building thumb linkages until the late 80's or even more recently.

Rick "who likes the older Miraphones" Denney

[rocksanddirt]

Mine is spelled with an F also. It's older ('69 time frame)

[cjk]

Did the tuba you saw have a vertical pull tuning slide (like your MW182) or a horizontal one like your (Mirafone 184)?

A Mirafone 188 is shorter and wider than a 186. It also has a larger bell throat than a 186. If that matches what you think of as "more squatty than I think of most Mphones" then that might be it. Intontation-wise, playing E 1+2 is about all you have to do. Here's a picture of one.



Several years ago, there was a horn being sold as a 188 prototype that had a Rudolf Meinl 4/4 looking body with a Mirafone bell. By Rudolf Meinl 4/4 looking body I mean that the top bow was much taller than your typical rotor 18x Mirafone. It also might have had a vertical pull tuning slide. It looked like a 4/4 RM with Mirafone valves and bell. I don't have a picture of it.

[Donn]

It had a diamond etched in the bell with a lady's face in it.

What's up with that - surely Miraphone didn't do that, would have been aware that Conn put an emblem like that on their instruments for years? Maybe the bell came from an old Conn Eb Giant, though with a Miraphone that seems like kind of a weird combination.

[MaryAnn]

So the kicker seems to be the miraFone with the lady's face etched inside of a diamond. I suppose it's possible that I didn't see what I thought I saw, and the older 188 does resemble what I think I saw, kranz and all. But my spotty memory doesn't think the bell was that tall. Hmmm. I give up. That old thing about a picture and 1000 words, plus aging memory cells.
MA

[cjk]

So the kicker seems to be the miraFone with the lady's face etched inside of a diamond. I suppose it's possible that I didn't see what I thought I saw, and the older 188 does resemble what I think I saw, kranz and all. But my spotty memory doesn't think the bell was that tall. Hmmm. I give up. That old thing about a picture and 1000 words, plus aging memory cells.
MA

It is possible that it had a Conn bell on a Mirafone body? Did you actually see the word "Mirafone" engraved there? The only reason I think Conn specifically is because of the lady. That sounds like Conn engraving.

[Donn]

The only reason I think Conn specifically is because of the lady. That sounds like Conn engraving.

Right, though in context of an engraving pattern typical of days of yore, lots of other stuff around the diamond (which at least on saxophones would be squared off on the bottom.) Not just a diamond with a face. Who knows, there isn't any law against engraving something yourself.