Miraphone model 98 B-flat playing characteristics and learning curve - VIDEO added on PAGE 10

[bort2.0]

Based on Joe's blind date preferences, I'll vote for: Ol' Sturdy

[bloke]

Based on Joe's blind date preferences, I'll vote for: Ol' Sturdy

Someone pays way too much attention to my posts trolling.

Right now, I'm chem-cleaning it...
It sure weighs a lot LESS with nearly-everything-that-can-be-taken-off-of-it removed for cleaning.

[bloke]

OK… It’s all clean and back together.
There was quite a lime storm inside the thing, and it’s all gone. Putting this thing back together, I was amazed at how the levers fit on their saddles (as I was required to remove the #4 and #5 levers from their saddles, in order to immerse this instrument in cleaning solution)… Even slightly crooked, they would not slip back into place - as their hinge tubing is absolutely fit to the last one thousandth of an inch.
One epically-stuck slide is now freed, and I’m really glad – frankly – that it was me who did the work extracting it, rather than the seller having some gorilla try to free it, because I got it out without damaging anything, though I did have to un-solder that slide, reassemble it, and refinish it.
I knocked out a few little ping dents here and there, and - everywhere I worked - I witnessed hammer-marks print-through, so I’m thinking that this must be a handmade instrument. Does anyone know anything about that?

I figured out how to solve the second space C problem - without doing anything drastic or un-soldering anything on the body of the instrument. After looking at the # 1 tuning slide bow, there’s quite a bit of “leg” on each side that I can remove from it - enough to be able to push all the way in for a good solid second space C.

I’m also realizing how remarkably well in tune this instrument really is… I’m really not having to pull the #1 slide out even an inch for much of anything, and it mostly sits (and sits and sits) at about the 3/4 inch mark.

After I cleaned it, the low F-sharp and C-sharp pitches relaxed, but they are still just barely flat enough with the #3 slide hanging all the way out at the precipice, so I’m going to alter that slide, and put a longer pair of slide tubes on one side. That requires very little soldering and very little refinishing.

I also figured out what’s going on with the overall barely-up-to-pitch thing, as I can “just” achieve A=440 with the main slide all the way in. Studying the main tuning slide bow, it is cut goofy and off-kilter. If I take the main slide all apart and chop about a half inch off of the large side and a quarter inch of the small side, that will not only make the main slide bow appear nice and symmetrical, but it will also give me just enough adjustment to at least push it in all the way to achieve A=442.

This thing is so close to perfection (particularly after I end up addressing these small details), it’s just nuts - particularly considering what it is (ie. something that is - perhaps - large enough to solve California's homeless problem).

[bort2.0]

I knocked out a few little ping dents here and there, and - everywhere I worked - I witnesssd hammer-marks print-through, so I’m thinking that this must be a handmade instrument. Does anyone know anything about that?

Yes, that is correct -- hand bent sheet metal bows and branches.

Which, as (virtually) a one-off instrument (ok, like 20-off), I wonder if the handmade method is actually easier than trying to pneumatically form the bows. If they are only making 20 (or whatever) of them, does it behoove them to make the process more streamlined? Or is it kind of a wash for the amount of time needed to develop those processes for those parts anyway?

That's probably worded terribly... But I remember being told something similar about my old Neptune. That the biggest parts were always handmade, because so few were made in the first place.

[Doc]

The 98 and 497 are handmade sheetbrass instruments.

(Hence the higher price)

[bloke]

Having played a 497, I'm going to politely stand aside and allow others to (either new or second-hand) purchase those.

yes...I've seen the youtube video...and regardless - this one offers a more sophisticated sonority, and (as I continue to describe) push-button operation.

I did fork over some dough to get this thing, and it's nice to get something - something quite special - for having forked it over.

[cjk]

Congrats @bloke, I'm excited for you.

[Ricardo]

I did fork over some dough to get this thing, and it's nice to get something - something quite special - for having forked it over.

So your saying, for the price, it’s good?

But we all know, in absolute terms, it’s great!

[bloke]

I did fork over some dough to get this thing, and it's nice to get something - something quite special - for having forked it over.

So your saying, for the price, it’s good?

But we all know, in absolute terms, it’s great!

yeah...I'm not sure that (factoring in inflation) it's the most I've ever paid for a tuba, but it's just about there...and I'm glad that (after a few days of review) I'm feeling no "buyer's remorse" whatsoever.

fwiw...Here's a 4/4 - 5/4 - 6/4 picture:

[bloke]

@bort2.0

[Doc]

Looks great! Hope to honk on it sooner than later!

[bort2.0]

Look at the cute lil Thor. Such a cool looking tuba! And finally, I'm not sitting here asking, even in jest, about having a CC version. Sharp keys are no fun for the brain, but whatev.

I'm curious (or needy)... What's the circumference at the bell ferrule?

[bloke]

Look at the cute lil Thor. Such a cool looking tuba! And finally, I'm not sitting here asking, even in jest, about having a CC version. Sharp keys are no fun for the brain, but whatev.

I'm curious (or needy)... What's the circumference at the bell ferrule?

I don’t have a piece of string in the house…

[pjv]

I did fork over some dough to get this thing, and it's nice to get something - something quite special - for having forked it over.

So your saying, for the price, it’s good?

But we all know, in absolute terms, it’s great!

yeah...I'm not sure that (factoring in inflation) it's the most I've ever paid for a tuba, but it's just about there...and I'm glad that (after a few days of review) I'm feeling no "buyer's remorse" whatsoever.

fwiw...Here's a 4/4 - 5/4 - 6/4 picture:

4/4? 5/4? 6/4?
What does this mean??

[York-aholic]

Look at the cute lil Thor. Such a cool looking tuba! And finally, I'm not sitting here asking, even in jest, about having a CC version. Sharp keys are no fun for the brain, but whatev.

I'm curious (or needy)... What's the circumference at the bell ferrule?

I don’t have a piece of string in the house…

A fabric tape measure will work in a pinch.




Sorry, I need a moment to compose myself.

[bloke]

Look at the cute lil Thor. Such a cool looking tuba! And finally, I'm not sitting here asking, even in jest, about having a CC version. Sharp keys are no fun for the brain, but whatev.

I'm curious (or needy)... What's the circumference at the bell ferrule?

I don’t have a piece of string in the house…

A fabric tape measure will work in a pinch.




Sorry, I need a moment to compose myself.

Perhaps, but if you’re in bed - and don’t feel like doing anything, any excuse will also work in a pinch.

[bloke]

4/4? 5/4? 6/4?
What does this mean??

Come to think of it, those designations are just about as nebulous as “fifth position on a trombone“, aren’t they?

[bloke]

The bell circumference at the insertion point is 19 inches, so the diameter is going to be 6 inches.

Since this tuba is about 40 1/2 inches tall – and many of the typical 6/4 tubas are 37 inches tall,
adjusting somewhat for that consideration would define a circumference of at least (if not more) 19 3/4 inches with a diameter of about 6 1/4 inches.

[YorkNumber3.0]

.

[bloke]

I didn’t intend to, but I ended up copying that design – pretty much, and without even realizing that I was doing it – when putting my compact Holton B-flat tuba together.
What it accomplishes is that it allows the manageable part (shorter circuits) of the valveset to be sunken deeper into the bugle, so that an instrument isn’t so fat - from back to front.
That having been said, it isn’t quite as elegant as snaking a really long valve circuit (nearly as long as 1, 2, and 3 put together) back through the instrument, as can be managed.

I don’t get the aesthetic criticism of the 4th wrap (or the rest of it either). Looks good, sturdy, and functional to me.