Falling in love with a Petruschka

[Norm in Bellevue]

This weekend was the first of what will hopefully be the annual meeting of SEATEC, Seattle Tuba Euphonium Conference. We were fortunate in having excellent guest artists/clinicians. As my work schedule prevented me from attending as many events as I wished, I'll let someone else describe the total weekend's experiences. After Friday night's quartet recital, the highlight of the conference for me was the opportunity to playtest a number of really fine tubas. Steve Ferguson of hornguys.com shipped over $100,00.00 worth of tubas and euphs to Seattle . Thank you, Steve!

I played all the CC's. None made me want to sell my 188. Then I tried the Miraphone Starlite--nice horn. Now a quick caveat. On a good day, I'm a most mediocre CC tubist. I'm not an F tubist, and likely never will be. That didn't stop me from trying a few. Again, none really said, "Buy me!" Finally I tried the brand-spanking-new Miraphone 1281 Petruschka. What a horn!!! The middle and upper ranges absolutely SING. The low range is open and well-focused all the way into the pedal range. The dreaded F tuba low C is a great note on this horn. The valves are quick, quiet and smooth as glass. And the ergonomics are friendly. If only I could think of a reason to justify buying this tuba! The entire selection of tubas present at SEATEC are to be shipped to D.C. for the Army Tuba Euph Conference. Somebody is going to get a fabulous F tuba!

[xavier687]

I was also at the SEATEC conference this past weekend. I'm a euphonium player, but i played the new petruschka for fun. Without being atuba play, my opinion isn't all that valid, but this horn felt great to play.

In answer to your question, the price the Steve Ferguson quoted us yesterday was $8,400 for the new Miraphone F Tuba, the Petruschka. Hope this helps!!

[bisontuba]

HI-
Interesting. I was told at ITEC last Summer it would sell around $10-11k--if indeed a lacquer horn is going to sell for around $8400 in the US, a new forum had better be started on Tubenet--'Used F tubas for sale'.......
Regards-
mark
jonestuba@juno.com" target="_blank

[Otto]

Not to beat a dead horse, but...

I was also at SEATEC. There were a lot of great horns there, of all varieties (HUGE thanks to Steve, who did us all a gigantic favor bringing that much equipment, and was a total class act and a joy to visit with!). But the one horn that stuck with me on the long drive home and was the talk of the conference among the tubists was the Petrushka, for all the reasons Norm cited and more.

The price quoted above is accurate to what Steve told me as well, and he said that when they are officially released this spring he will have 3 laquer and 1 silver in his shop ready to go. Gentlemen (and ladies), start your engines.

Not to overshadow the other great horns that were there! A Gronitz F with a beautiful tone, a very nice Yamaha F, a very even-playing gold brass Miraphone 188, and the Miraphone Thurman euph all caught my eye, and the bass trumpets and cimbasso were a lot of fun!

[bort]

Does the Petruschka have the same short-action valves as the 1291/2?

[Norm in Bellevue]

Does the Petruschka have the same short-action valves as the 1291/2?

Well, the valve action was certainly no longer than the 1291/92s. I had just played both of those horns a few minutes prior to the Petruschka. I would have noticed if it had been longer. As a non F tubist, I'm reassured by the endorsement of my opinion from (above) tubists far superior in ability to me. I've heard "Otto" play several times--he's good!
As for the price, yes $8400 is what Steve quoted to me, as well.