Miraphone bells

[bloke]

I'm considering ordering some bells at this time, and a few stacked inside each other would probably ship for roughly the same amount of shipping cost as one.

If I decide to offer to take orders for them, will I expect people to pay in full in advance - if Miraphone says they can make them reasonably soon? Yes.

Will I mark them up and make a profit? Absolutely.

Will I price gouge? I don't believe I've ever done that.

Do I know whether Miraphone can make any particular quantity of bells right away? No, but they've indicated that they can make one in particular that I'm ordering, and it's not a small one.

If anyone's interested, funded, and understands that the price of any bell is going to be a good bit over $1,000, they can message me.

If anyone is looking for a replacement bell for something like a Holton 345 - a bell that would actually resemble one of those bells quite closely, they might want to send me a message, if they are funded and serious.

Can Miraphone fabricate bells with or without nickel krantz-style rims? Yes.

Would I be willing to ship bells domestically to anyone who bought them? I suppose , but that involves several hundred more dollars of cost and - assuming a bell or a stack of bells arrives here free of damage, that would simply offer one more chance for them to be damaged. I would recommend traveling here to pick up bells in person. It may be a long drive for some people, but it's a possible drive, whereas driving to Germany is not possible. Please read this as me strongly discouraging asking for domestic shipping from here once received, just as I would discourage anyone from shipping a complete tuba, if they could possibly doing so.
(Just as an example, both Wade and I would happily and immediately choose driving a thousand miles or further - one way - to pick up a purchased tuba - certainly any tuba of any value in undamaged condition, as opposed to having it shipped to us.)

If an ordered bell arrived with very minor damage and and I did a superb job of repairing it, would I still expect the person who ordered it to take delivery for the original agreed price? Yes, either that amount or something very close to it.

Understand that I'm just dipping my toes in the water to determine interest, and I'm not promising anyone anything, though I'm nearly certain that I am purchasing at least one bell from them very soon.

[bloke]

Okay. I got a quote for one that I'm absolutely ordering, and I got a quote for another already-made one that's blemished, that I believe I'm also going to purchase and save back for myself, so - pretty soon - I'm going to solidify an order...
...so if anyone is thinking of ordering a bell and taking advantage of multiple bell shipping from Europe, they might want to start thinking a little harder and quicker.
I'm not going to place this notice on Facebook on frankentuba or tuba/euphonium, because I just don't want to get into some wild thing where I'm ordering 10 or 15 bells for a bunch of people I don't know... but if you know a stand-up person who might be interested in a Miraphone bell, you can refer them to this notice.
That having been said, I still don't know how many diverse bells - or even common ones, like 186 - that they can produce in a short amount of time.

==================

This is a rinky dink thing, but I'm also going to order some more of those "cool" mushroom-shaped water key corks from that other source in Europe. Last time when some of you ordered them, I had to sort them out because they were sort of random and some of them were grainy with imperfections cutting across where the air seal area is. I talked to that source, and they're willing to PRE-sort them out and send me nice white ones, but charge me a good bit more. (I sort of ended up on bad end of that deal, and ended up keeping the worst ones for myself, last time.) I'm thinking I can sell a minimum of five to anyone who wants five of those for $30 plus postage. This includes a mark-up for me, and covers my time to package them up for individual people and mail them out to individual people. I'd probably put some small-bubble bubblewrap around a minimum of five of them and mail them in a bubblewrap-lined envelope and mail them USPS ground-advantage with tracking and no insurance (for something like six bucks postage). In my experience, these fit into standard Miraphone water key cups, into Buffet (B&S/M-W) tuba water key cups, and I've actually also been able to "just" stuff them in King water key cups... with the top part (as designed) "muffin-ing out" past the cup.

[bloke]

The last post featured a lot of blah blah blah, but one thing which might have ended up being buried in the rhetoric - and that might be of interest to some people - is that the model 98 bell and the Holton 345 bell are nearly identical from top to bottom in profile, and Miraphone is perfectly willing to make bells that are nice and sturdy (0.8 mm thick) and with a American-looking so-called "French rim" (no krantz), and some may wish to replace really badly distressed old 345 bells.

[bloke]

Thanks for all the communications. I'm placing the order tonight so it can be put in force first thing Monday morning.

[bloke]

For those who would like to replace a bell on a Holton 34X tuba and are maybe a little bit skeptical, I'll put up some pictures after these bells arrive. They're probably about the closest match of anything that has ever been available, and some things that have been fairly close matches are hard to get, these days.
Am I making a profit off of these? Yes...Yes, I am.
Just like when people ask me for confidential quotes on new instruments, those of you who have asked me for a price have been pleasantly surprised, even though maybe you weren't quite yet ready to pull the trigger on one.

Again, once they arrive and I post some pictures and measurements and such, it might boost the confidence of a few of you. I can buy more later.

[bloke]

I'm needing payment (ie. right away) as all of the discussed bells are about to be fabricated...

...or not.

[bloke]

The ones that are really similar to Holton 345 bells - along with all the rest - are on their way here. I know there are some of you with Holton 340-345 bells with patches on them and stuff and maybe you've thought about replacing your bell.

When they arrive, I'll comment on them and maybe take a picture of one next to an old Holton bell. I could even compare their weight.

I could order some more in the in the future, but they have to be shipped one bell at a time, even though a smaller bill can probably be slipped in the box with one of these. The Miraphone people just don't want to stack them. Apparently - when they've tried to stack bells that are the same size, there's more of a chance of creasing due to the weight concentrated together.

[bloke]

I'm excited about unpacking a bunch of pretty new bells that fit different models as well as a bit worried about possible damage in shipping from Europe, but Miraphone packing is the best..

I wonder how long it's going to take for these things to get here. They've been shipped.

[rjdawson]

Hopefully pretty soon!

[bloke]

Hopefully pretty soon!

I'm always eager to be PAST a job or sale, rather than anticipating a job or sale...
...the the worst type of sale (to me) are those whereby I've been paid in advance, and people are waiting for their goods and/or services.

[arpthark]

As a point of comparison, I’ve been waiting for a tuba delivery from Germany since Monday, March 17 (it is Sunday March 23, almost a week later, as I write this) and I just got an email that it is now being processed in customs.

[bloke]

As a point of comparison, I’ve been waiting for a tuba delivery from Germany since Monday, March 17 (it is Sunday March 23, almost a week later, as I write this) and I just got an email that it is now being processed in customs.

Yeah. I haven't even received the first legitimate DHL tracking notification other than the numbers are in the system.

[UncleBeer]

I got a couple of these from Miraphone DE; arrived stacked (no damage though), and mine were unfinished, requiring a couple hours of buffing. FYI.

[bloke]

They're not willing to stack the 6/4 bells...
I'd guess it has to do with the gauge of the material (basically the same as with smaller bells) vs. surface area, and likelihood of damage.

I'm sure it's based on some bad experience(s) they've had.