FS: Beautiful and lightly-modded Miraphone 1293S

[jgoro]

Hi all,

I've been dreading making this post, but I have a mint condition (three dings notwithstanding) Miraphone 1293S that I must sell. This is my dream 5/4 piston CC, with my dream "big tuba" sound (without being a whole 6/4 and having those issues), and this particular example is in the top 5 best tubas I have ever played; my reason for selling is that I just don't need this much horn for a CC at this stage of my life, as I'm doing 90% of my playing on F and Eb, and I just acquired a (smaller and more efficient) CC for the remaining 10%. I bought the horn with one career trajectory in mind, and have since shifted my ideals (and, most sadly, my horn priorities).

I purchased this horn "new" from Dillon Music a couple of years ago. Someone bought it from them literally new, owned it for just a few weeks, then returned it after (I assume) lifting the horn out of its snug Cronkhite by the thumb ring enough times to cause stress fractures around the stock thumbring fixture. The first of two small mods I had done to this horn was getting a nice, silver-plated patch put over the stress fractures on the fake bar, and having the stock Miraphone hardware attached to that patch instead of directly to the fake bar; this is MUCH sturdier, and now the integrity of the fake bar won't continue to decline regardless of whether or not the thumbring is in use (I did not use the thumbring prior to this repair). The other mod I have had done was swapping the receivers on the 1291 and 1292 leadpipes that the horn comes with standard. The 1291 leadpipe is an American receiver on a pipe that opens up too much and becomes inefficient, and the 1292 pipe is a Euro receiver on a pipe that doesn't open as much to compensate for the needless Euro shank; the pipe I have used is the smaller 1291 receiver grafted onto the smaller 1292 pipe, and it makes the horn better in all ways. I still have the original 1291 tuba and 1292 receiver, and having a tech unsolder and resolder receiver bits wouldn't be much of a task, should you desire one of the original stock pipes.

This horn is incredibly responsive, with a huge sound full of resonance and core (which can be shifted towards either end of that spectrum VERY easily with mouthpiece and airflow choices, should you prefer more/less core/resonance). The low range on this horn is IMMENSE and... just silly good. Intonation is damn near point and shoot; the only three notes that aren't right in tune by default are D in the staff (flat on first valve; dead in tune on fourth valve, but then you're playing on the fourth valve in the middle of the horn which isn't always ideal), Db below staff (sharp on 2+4, sharp on 1+2+3, flat on 2+3+5), and low Db above pedal (sharp; it's a tuba). Pushing the first slide for D and pulling the fourth for the Dbs is my default, and that isn't particularly upsetting for me since it's only needed for exactly three notes between C1 and C5.

No pictures currently (as I'd like to wipe the horn down first), but they will be taken and available by tomorrow evening. I'd like to get $9850 OBO for the horn, plus the black cordura Cronkhite bag it lives in. The horn is located in Rochester, NY, and I'd be willing to drive a reasonable distance to meet a buyer, or potentially even an unreasonable distance (not more than 14 hours round trip, and only to meet at a halfway point); shipping will have to be at buyer's expense. I'm not interested in a trade, unless there happens to be someone out there who would trade a good Yamaha 822F or Miraphone Petruschka for this (tiny chances, different types of needs).

Please feel free to call 615-972-1801, or email at jgorodetzkymouthpieces@gmail.com" target="_blank, if interested.

Thanks for reading!
Justin Gorodetzky

[jgoro]

Forgot to update this, but this instrument is on hold.

[jgoro]

This horn has sold.