Seattle CL: Mirafone BBb "Kaiser Tuba"

[hrender]

https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/msg/d/mirafone-bbb-kaisertuba/6763173954.html

[Heavy_Metal]

Might be a 190.

[bort]

Yes, it is a 190, the vertical MTS is a giveaway.

The 190 BBb always looks a little smaller in pictures like this, out of context. It's a very large tuba, but is more tall and skinny than big and fat.

[MartyNeilan]

One of the reasons the 190 “looks” skinny is because it is 5-6 inches taller than a typical American BAT. Were the tuba rewrapped into a shorter configuration, the bows would be correspondingly fatter.

[greenbean]

Man, that is big!

How do these play?...

[bort]

Interesting and somewhat related info:

http://www.daveamason.com/mirafone/190190.html

[The Big Ben]

Interesting and somewhat related info:

http://www.daveamason.com/mirafone/190190.html"

Also interesting on that site:

Side by side photos of 184. 186. 188 one 190/ The 190 is a mutha!

http://www.daveamason.com/mirafone/cctubas.html

[bort]

The one 190 CC that I played was not a tuba I liked; I played it a few minutes, expecting it to be a huge 188. It is not.

Perhaps it is a good tuba when you learn how to play it, but for what I thought it was... and after 5 minutes... it wasn't great.

That said, if Tommy Johnson had a 190 and played it regularly, then at least that one was a great tuba. He would never have wasted his time on something awful.

[Donn]

I believe the conventional Tubenet wisdom is that the CC was fine, but the more common BBb not Miraphone's best. I had one myself, a "scratch and dent" from WW&BW back in the '80s, but I wasn't really in any shape as a player to evaluate its place in the ranks of great tubas. The guy I sold it to thought it was great, and still has it, to the best of my knowledge.

This one was a good deal older, I noticed some minor differences. Past tense, because at the moment the ad is expired, but if I remember right, the price was pretty fair, considering what it is and the condition it's in. You could hardly assume it's going to be the perfect tuba for you, just from looking at the pictures - but then, that does tend to be how it goes.