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1965 Miraphone Bb 186 with original recording bell and a Yamaha straight bell. Two main tuning slides: the original and a new one that's a couple inches longer to go with the straight bell. The combination of upright bell and longer tuning slide pretty much corrects the typical 186 flat D and Db, and I've really liked that combination.
There's a dent at the bottom bow (see pictures) and various nicks and bumps elsewhere. All the small tubing is good, the slides are straight, and the valves are great -- smooth and fast.
This finally slipped onto the second page, so ... bump.
Let me know if I've priced it too high or if this is just a lousy time to sell this kind of tuba.
John Morris
This practicing trick actually seems to be working! playing some old German rotary tubas for free
jtm wrote: ↑Thu Sep 10, 2020 9:45 pm
This finally slipped onto the second page, so ... bump.
Let me know if I've priced it too high or if this is just a lousy time to sell this kind of tuba.
I think $2500 is in the ball park with the 2 bells for sure. Maybe some Mirafone purists will not like that Yamaha bell though.
Last edited by KingTuba1241X on Sat Sep 19, 2020 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
My 186 used to have both detachable bells. I found them very versatile, because not all outdoor concerts need a front bell (gazebo with plaster ceiling projected well), and not all indoor concerts sound best with the up bell (stage where sound was soaked up by the lights and curtains rigging).
I'd like to have it but I've bagged my limit and until I sell one ....
Miraphone 186 - King 2341 - JP179B - York & sons 1910 Eb - Meinl Weston 2145 - Wessex Festivo - King 2280 Play it with emotion and play it strong! Don't make a face and they won't know it's wrong!
Doc wrote: ↑Sun Sep 13, 2020 8:49 am
I can’t believe this tuba is still unsold!
I know... I'd love to have it... I'm being bent a bit with deductibles and copays for my wife's knee replacement.... So ready cash is under restriction at the moment.
I get inquiries about my little JP from time to time but no sale yet. Got real close a couple of times but shipping is so expensive...
Miraphone 186 - King 2341 - JP179B - York & sons 1910 Eb - Meinl Weston 2145 - Wessex Festivo - King 2280 Play it with emotion and play it strong! Don't make a face and they won't know it's wrong!
This looks like it could be a good tuba for me. Maybe y'all can talk me into it.
I mentioned this when I joined that other tuba forum a few years back. I am now a 60+ trumpet player turned tubist because we had no tubas in recent memory in my community band and we suddenly had more than enough trumpets. I was a decent trumpet player - orchestra and church jobs, mostly. For the last few years I only played trumpet at Easter and Christmas and my playing way below what I could once do.
I bought a Conn 5J locally from another TubeNet member that I have been using. It is very likely more me than the instrument but I would like a little more sound to balance out this 20-30 member group. I thought a bigger horn and maybe even a bell-front one would help but I really don't know.
Now the community band hasn't met since February and I used the pandemic break to work on the trumpet, determining I was going to regain my abilities. I am getting there but may sadly have waited too long to be able to fully recover the endurance I once had. I haven't even touched the tuba in months now (I need to change that).
I would like a tuba that would help me as I likely continue to be the only tubist in the group (if we ever start back, that is). A C tuba or a Bb tuba is fine as I am adept at transposition on the trumpet. A C tuba would let me finger the notes on the page as I would the trumpet but a Bb puts me in more familiar, band-y finger patterns. I have had no problems reading a concert-pitch tuba part using a Bb tuba so far.
In the past I have thought about a Marzan slant rotor just because they were such a neat idea (to my mind) and have seen Getzen Meinl Weston C's in the about $2000 price range that looked nice. I think a big tuba, like a Conn 20j, would be fun to play with, though not practical as an all around tuba. A Miraphone is the gold-standard, isn't it?
I am Tennessee, near Bristol, TN/VA, as far as finding something relatively near by.
Would a front bell help me to better balance the group? Or would it be too directional; too much in-your-face? The upward facing bell is better for giving a more all-over presence of sound, isn't it? Perhaps I just need to work on my pitiful air supply.
Then again, like the Car Talk guys used to say, never pass up an opportunity to buy a new tool.
ProAm wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 4:39 pm
Would a front bell help me to better balance the group? Or would it be too directional; too much in-your-face? The upward facing bell is better for giving a more all-over presence of sound, isn't it?
Just use whichever bell works best. You have it covered. Besides, trumpets and trombones are directional, aren’t they?
ProAm wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 4:39 pm
Yes, I did see your post.
Would a front bell help me to better balance the group? Or would it be too directional; too much in-your-face? The upward facing bell is better for giving a more all-over presence of sound, isn't it? Perhaps I just need to work on my pitiful air supply.
Then again, like the Car Talk guys used to say, never pass up an opportunity to buy a new tool.
ProAm wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:28 pmThis looks like it could be a good tuba for me. Maybe y'all can talk me into it.
Read my post above about how versatile having both bells are.
It all depends on the venue. With a "classic" sound-shell type stage, the upright bell does what Sousa wanted the sousaphone to do: lift the sound over the band. The ceiling of the stage I quoted was so full of lights and heavy felt baffles that a tuba could not be heard off the front of the stage and I had to use the front bell. For open air concerts I usually used the bell front so I could actually be heard out front. The one stone-and-plaster gazebo I referred to had such good acoustics for the upright bell that only one tuba was required to support the band. Again, it all depends on the venue, and I just decided I liked the tone of the Besson bell better than the Miraphone bell on my particcular tuba.
