Piston Miraphone 186

[LargeTuba]

I just bought this tuba. Apparently it was made for Arnold Jacobs with Holton valves.





I think it’s Early mirafone, it’s incredibly light and barky. It Is an absolute dream to play.

Anyone know anything else about this tuba?

[bort2.0]

I can only see the rear photo

[MN_TimTuba]

I see 2 pics, front and rear, and I think it's cool.
Who was the builder, I wonder?
Tim

[matt g]

Interesting!

I’m assuming it’ll get some TLC?

[arpthark]

What was the selling price, if you don't mind sharing?

[LargeTuba]

Interesting!

I’m assuming it’ll get some TLC?

Yes! Going to get all the dents removed and the bell ironed out. I think the valves are not lined up correctly, which is very exciting because it plays so well.

[the elephant]

I love the rotary-to-piston leadpipe and MTS solution. NICE! That is a tuba I would like to try out one day.

[bloke]

pointed out in another forum:

When pasting a piston valve set onto a rotary instrument body, the body either has to be altered or something has to be done with all of the excess mouthpipe length.

The original Hirsbrunner HB2P (resulting from having had Walter Nirschl build them a York-like valveset for their 6/4 interpretation of the CSO York, and then looking for ways to get additional mileage out of that valveset investment) solved it by sticking an odd little slide – which was of no use – on the front of the bell. Later, there HB 21 solve the problem by the other method mentioned above: altering the body.

This tuba in this thread – as well as the MRP F tuba - solved it more simply with a sideways length-absorbing loop in the mouthpipe tube.

[bisontuba]

Who told you it was made for Jacobs? Any verification? Where is the Mirafone logo? No garland?

[the elephant]

Cool horn, but yeah, in going back to look at the details on my larger monitor, I see no Miraphone-looking ferrules, braces, or other indications of it having come from Waldkraiburg. However, if it is really old (like from when they first went into business) all that stuff might have looked very different from their traditional house look.

I would still like to play it. Horns like this can be a lot of fun.

[York-aholic]

That is a pretty interesting valve set. The porting especially. Most of the ports are at a slight angle to the axis of the valve set. The right side (in the front picture) got my attention how it comes up from the port (towards the camera). If you zoom in on that spot in the rear picture, it looks like that is all knuckle until it gets the the straight outer slide tubing. If that’s correct, I’ve never seen anything like that. Pretty custom!

I’d love to hear the history. If tubas could talk.

[bort2.0]

It reminds me in some ways of the Richardson model Holton that Lee Stofer has posted on his homepage:

[bort2.0]

PS -- I think the "finger buttons" (screws through quarters) is an interesting solution.

[the elephant]

*** Deleting my stupid observation made before my morning coffee had kicked in. ***

[LargeTuba]

PS -- I think the "finger buttons" (screws through quarters) is an interesting solution.

I have the “factory” buttons, but they are small. Quarters work great.

[LargeTuba]

I just noticed that every brace is one piece. This doesn't scream Holton.



Also, like Bort pointed out, this Holton is very similar to mine, but has several two piece braces.

[dp]

I just bought this tuba. Apparently it was made for Arnold Jacobs with Holton valves.





I think it’s Early mirafone, it’s incredibly light and barky. It Is an absolute dream to play.

Anyone know anything else about this tuba?

Whoa! That's the Geisel Holton, I thought it was lost to antiquity!!

[bort2.0]

Two other old Holton tubas possibly of interest:

From the Klaus Bjerre archives, this one was labeled as "1936 Holton-Miraphone BBb with 3 Holton-style short stroke pistons" (I have no idea what Miraphone has to do with it):


Also, a Holton Del Negro posted by Dan Oberloh about 15 years ago:

http://forums.chisham.com/viewtopic.php?t=29879

These both have different ferrules than your tuba, but the same as the Stofer Holton.

The ferrules on your tuba look sort of like a Rudy Meinl to me. I'll have to dig up an OLD photo of an OLD Miraphone 186 to see if it looks like your ferrules.

[Kirley]

From the Klaus Bjerre archives, this one was labeled as "1936 Holton-Miraphone BBb with 3 Holton-style short stroke pistons" (I have no idea what Miraphone has to do with it):

Miraphone bell

[bort2.0]

From the Klaus Bjerre archives, this one was labeled as "1936 Holton-Miraphone BBb with 3 Holton-style short stroke pistons" (I have no idea what Miraphone has to do with it):

Miraphone bell

Aaaaand... There's the Kranz. Whoops! Thanks for the help!