narrative:" 'MIRAFONE' was the name used in the USA because a telephone maker in the US was already called 'MIRAPHONE'."

[bloke]

...or perhaps not...

[Three Valves]

Fact checker says;

Once true, now no longer true, since no one knows how to spell.

[The Big Ben]

I just did a quick Google search. There are telephones branded both "Miraphone" and "Mirafone". There are also Miraphone hearing aids. It's a confusing issue but I have always thought "Mirafone" was because of a clash with the hearing aid manufacturer in the US.

I have owned a Miraphone tuba and currently own a Mirafone tuba. I don't use a hearing aid so I guess I have all the bases covered.

[Doc]

I just did a quick Google search. There are telephones branded both "Miraphone" and "Mirafone". There are also Miraphone hearing aids. It's a confusing issue but I have always thought "Mirafone" was because of a clash with the hearing aid manufacturer in the US.

I have owned a Miraphone tuba and currently own a Mirafone tuba. I don't use a hearing aid so I guess I have all the bases covered.

I own one of each. I would agree (with minor addendum) that we have all the basses covered.

[bloke]

In the distant past, I had never heard a proven-to-be-factual explanation nor an obviously-fabricated one. (ie: I don't recall the topic being discussed at all.)

One thing was quite clear:
The change in the spelling to PH (for the instruments exported to the United States) happened immediately after the California-then-Texas company lost its exclusive importation/distributorship rights.

Something else has become quite clear to me over the years:
Quite a few explanations - for the reasons for doing all sorts of things - are not the real reasons, and are sometimes - if not often - malarkey.

I did always assume something though:
I just assumed that the American exclusive importer had theirs engraved "PH" for a couple of reasons, those being that this strategy would quickly identify any gray market instruments slipped into the country, as well as the "F" looking more "German" to Americans.

(For what it's worth, the 186 that I bought new in 1974 was gray market, did not pass through the hands of the Sun Valley, California distributors, was engraved "PH" on the bell, and featured no serial number. I bought it from a New York retailer that was very popular and active at that time.)

[Casca Grossa]

My narrative is I own 2 Mirafones with the "f" and they are spectacular. No other narrative needed.

[Paulver]

I, too, had heard different stories as to the different spellings on the bell, so I decided to go to the source. I emailed Miraphone yesterday. Although it doesn't give an "explanation as to why", per se, it does clarify the actual difference in the spelling.

This came directly from Miraphone this morning:


Hello Paul,

Thank you for your inquiry. The reason for the different engraving is that “Mirafone” was the trade mark for the USA until the early 1990´s. Since then all instruments are engraved with “Miraphone”.

Best regards,
Eva


Eva Staudinger
Vertriebsassistentin / Sales Assistant


Miraphone eG
Traunreuter Str. 8
84478 Waldkraiburg
tel: +49 (0)8638 96820
fax: +49 (0)8638 82863
e-mail: eva.staudinger@miraphone.de
web: www.miraphone.deHello Paul,

[bloke]

Yep.. and believe that my guesses that "it identified instruments shipped to California or Texas for US distribution vs. gray market that were sold to all other countries, plus the fact that the American distributor thought it looked more German to spell it that way" are as good a guess as anything.

[Rick Denney]

Which reinforces the notion that the US distributor in Sun Valley had trouble trademarking “Miraphone” for whatever reason but was able to trademark “Mirafone”.

That reason may have been external—some other concern had already registered a competing mark. But trademarks usually don’t apply across very different industries, and are all about confusion in the market. It’s hard to imagine anyone being confused about telephone products on seeing advertising for tubas.

Or it may have been internal—the US distributor wanted an exclusive product or thought the spelling would sell better. Or to make it easier to identify gray-market instruments.

Import distributors take a lot of risk and spend a lot of money making the market for products not yet well-known and popular. Miraphone transformed a market dominated by American manufacturers that had by that time become complacent about quality in their quest for reduced costs. Exclusivity agreements are how importers ensure a return on that investment. But they always seem to end up throttling the market, with general applause when they come to an end.

Mirafone USA is certainly not the only example of that process in the tuba world. Those exclusivity arrangements—we’ve cussed ‘em before.

Rick “ahem!” Denney

[arpthark]

Mirafone USA is certainly not the only example of that process in the tuba world. Those exclusivity arrangements—we’ve cussed ‘em before.

Rick “ahem!” Denney

The Rolls-Royce of innuendoes.

[bloke]

Thinking about it, probably the best domestic tubas - at the time that MiraFone was introduced to the US market - were the King 1241 tubas, which featured #1 and #3 circuits - which were way too long - and with no upper return #1 slide.
Otherwise, the 6/4 Martin tubas were venerable, but rarely seen offered for sale by stores and quite expensive...There were no big box discounters, during those years. (...I tend to rate instruments with the best acoustical intonation characteristics in their open bugles as best, and I tend to sort of view all other characteristics as secondary.)

Since that time, more and more imported tubas have flooded the US, and domestic tuba manufacturing has basically rolled over and died. (There's a small following for those made by a smaller California manufacturer - which is now shuttered, but I was never personally a fan, and consider those to be a footnote.)

[Christian]

Hi,

Miraphone engraved only instruments with "MiraFone" for the US-market since the mid of 1950´ because of a telephone company named "MiraPHone" in the US. Approximately since the year 2000 we engrave all instruments with "MiraPHone" because it made no longer sense for us. Only instruments for the Spanish and US market were engraved with serial numbers until 2000. Since the year 2000 all products get their numbers.

[bloke]

Yeah.. the original point being that I was noticing that the telephone company spelled the name of their products with an F, but whatever.

[bloke]

Christian is at home recovering from knee surgery.

As with my relatives and friends, this type of surgery is pretty miraculous, and he reports that he will be back in his office next week.