Mirafone 188 - older standard mpces won't fit

[kathott]

Hello, I read an old thread on this topic which did not
quite answer my questions, so here is a new one.

I recently bought a Mirafone 188, great tuba.
It comes with the standard German "Euro" receiver but most of
my old classic mouthpieces won't fit into the leadpipe securely,
they generally go in too far and "rock". Even those that do go in halfway won't seat correctly.

The older models included the Rose Solo (mid 1970's), Conn Helleberg (late 1970's), Schilke 67 (late 1970's), Schilke Helleberg II (mid 1980's), a Bach Mt. Vernon 18.

Anyone else have this experience?
Kathott

[Doug Elliott]

In the 1980's I measured a lot of tuba receivers.
All of the Mirafones at that time had a receiver taper of .040 per inch.
The mouthpieces you mentioned have a taper of .050 per inch.
They don't fit.

[cjk]

Are you sure you have a 188? Can you post a picture?

[bort]

Any chance that it's not the original receiver (or even the original leadpipe)?

I remember Alan Baer posting here a while ago about Miraphone 188 mouthpieces, and that the exact measurement was slightly between Standard and Euro (or something like that). I can't quite remember the details, but you can search for it (Al doesn't post here all that often). The main idea was that the best fit is a mouthpiece that starts bigger than will fit and then is turned down to the exact right size.

I'm using a Blokepiece standard shank on my mid 80's Mirafone 188 now, and it fits just fine.