Last Saturday Sandy and I made the 9 hr trip to Arlington Heights, IL, arriving just before 10 pm. Stayed with the family that had kindly picked up my Mirafone. Left Sunday afternoon, arriving back at the homestead at midnight. I've been playing the 83 a bit everyday, and this is my report. A couple of you have already read much of this, you know who you are.
First, I'm having difficulty wrapping my brain around not having Bb as a starting point. My mind hears one thing, the horn does something else. I'll get there, but man, it takes a toot or two to find my starting pitch on anything, whether printed music or playing without.
Next, almost everything anyone cautioned me about is true (imagine that). The horn has a sweet mid range, nice high range, but down low it sounds like someone stuffed an old pair of long johns down the bell, and not clean ones at that. I hope to find a way to work with that.
Thirdly, mouthpiece selection seems to be critical. I've tried 5 different pieces on this thing, with different results from each.
* Marcinkiewicz George Roberts bass trombone piece. Just as an experiment, but this was ridiculously small, I couldn't play much at all.
* Marcinkiewicz Tommy Johnson N4*. I had high hopes for this one, but it turned the 83 into a blatt machine. Nothing sounded 'pretty', or even close.
* Wessex Chief. Inconsistent intonation, but the sound is really cool. Makes this tuba sound like a bass french horn. Totally different sound from all of the others. Cool, but not useable at this point.
* PT88. Really makes this 83 sound almost like a contrabass tuba, but the high range suffers (so far). I may use this one for bass lines with the Dixie band.
* Couesnon BBb. This little Helleberg is the smallest tuba piece I have, and it does the best job in all ranges, for intonation, and acceptable bass lines. Will probably be my choice until I find a real Eb mouthpiece.
My late 80's Miraphone catalog says the original mouthpiece is a 1M, deep cup, with a 1.16" diameter rim. Also says bore is .700 with a 15" bell, tho' this front bell measures 15.5". The Couesnon mouthpiece (roughly) measures a bit over 1.25" rim opening.
Lastly, unlike everything else I've read about Mirafones - and my own experience with my 191 - this horn is definitely not "point and shoot" when it comes to intonation. I find a lot of very wide slots, a lot of flat pitches (relative to the scale of the horn) - and the horn plays VERY sharp according to the tuner. I imagine much of that is due to my using contrabass mouthpieces, although with the Couesnon the tuning issues are moderated to where some active lipping is effective.
Overall, so far, I really like this horn. The size and weight are great for my intended purposes, it's comfortable to hold, the patina and bell-front make it an eye-catcher, and I'm really digging the clockwork mechanism. Honestly, the rotors (tho' clanky) are faster than they were on my 191. I'm hoping that if I use a mouthpiece bit it will bring the pitch down enough that I can play with the band or with piano accompaniment. Oh, and the Pro-Tech bag is terrific.
So, for now I'm asking for mouthpiece advice. I'm hoping to not have to buy several $150+ pieces in order to find a suitable one. Not knowing anything about Mirafone pieces, is there an other brand & model that would be similar to the 1M?
Thanks for reading, and I appreciate any advice, mouthpiece or otherwise.
PS. Hackney's in Wheeling is permanently closed. Once there were 5 locations, now only 2. Sigh.
Tim
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