Anyone ever played one of these?

[hup_d_dup]

Miraphone 56B
Variously described as a tenor tuba or kaiser baritone

Reason for asking: I'm looking for something that has a brighter sound than a euphonium. The
Besson small-bore baritones are a bit cramped for my taste and I'm hoping a larger bore might be the ticket.

Trying to decide if it's worth a road trip.

Hup

56 B.jpg (140.9 KiB) Viewed 317 times

[bort2.0]

They are fun, but for me, it has to be the right price to be worth it. Pretty limited use, IMO

[bloke]

I own a Melton made one (aka “Meinl-Weston”).

Mine is about 30 inches tall. The bell diameter is the same as most of the compensating euphoniums being currently produced, but the bugle is much fatter. When I measure down from the bell rim to the same place that a typical compensating euphonium‘s bell ends, my kaiser baritone bell is about 1/4th larger in diameter. The bore size in the rotors is about the same as a large bore compensating euphonium, but occurs a bit later in the instrument.

Miraphone may be different, but the sonority of mine is anything but brighter, and - to get the type of sound that I prefer, I need to go down to something like a 6-1/2AL or 5G, as typical compensating euphonium mouthpiece offers a sonority that is too dull…

…but why not go look at it? The least you’ll get is a free education.

[LeMark]

I owned one. (actually the 4 valve version) Really bad low range, in fact I removed the 4th valve for another project and sold it as a 3 valve instrument.

Didn't play particularly in tune either. The oval version is a better horn

[Mary Ann]

I had one similar but it was not a Miraphone. Maybe a Melton....but it was so horribly out of tune with itself that it got played only a few times. I actually don't remember what tone quality it had, but pretty sure it did not sound anything like my Sterling euph that I ended up with. I had it because I don't do well with pistons, and still don't, but couldn't find a rotary that was playable with my intonation standards.