Miraphone BBb 185 Leadpipe

[b.williams]

Does anyone have a vintage Miraphone BBb 185 leadpipe in good shape that they are willing to sell?

[arpthark]

Just looking at pics, the CC leadpipe typically has a right angle and the BBb leadpipe has a dogleg so I wouldn't think so.

[b.williams]

I didn't think so.
Thank you.

[bloke]

You haven't gone into what's wrong with the original or whether it's completely missing or what, but - if it's rotted along the part that goes around the bell - I've found that sometimes the simplest solution is to manufacture half of a old mouthpipe and connect it with the larger bore half just passed the bell wrap. Older Meinl-Weston rotary mouthpipes were made two-piece and just the same way, so I don't think anyone would be horrified at this, and nor do I believe that it would have any acoustical effects, as long as the ends of the tubes were matched up nicely.

Please ignore if this has nothing to do with a possible solution.

That having been said, another reason why I often use this as a way to repair old Miraphone rotten or badly damaged or torn mouthpipes (particularly since the fatter part of them often is not rotten), is because - even when a new one is ordered from Germany - they have made the bell to upper bow braces wider than decades ago, and the geometry is now different.

In the repair forum, I'm nearly to the ready to polish stage on an old 1962 B-flat 186, I repaired that instrument's mouthpipe in the same way, but - in addition to damage and rotting - I did it for a third reason, which was the fact that the smaller part of that mouthpipe formerly dipped way down, as that instrument was one of those detachable recording bell instruments prior to me putting a different Miraphone bell on it.

[b.williams]

I have the leadpipe.
It has dents and rot.

[bloke]

I have the leadpipe.
It has dents and rot.

If the entire length of the existing mouthpipe tube is badly rotted, then my suggestion is not viable.
If the larger bore half if it is not - or is only a little bit - rotted (and mostly only dented), then my suggestion could possibly be viable.

Dents - from the larger-bore halves of Miraphone rotary tuba mouthpipes - are pretty easy to remove with greased dent balls, a double (two-inch thick) magnet, and (yep) without even removing it from the instrument.

Even the worst dented areas (in the larger-bore portions of those mouthpipes) can be annealed (yes: even left ON the instrument) which defines that such dents are then even easier to remove in this manner. (If lacquer is really worn, annealing can be inconsequential, cosmetics-wise.)

A work-around for the lead solder joints is to use (thin gauge) soft wire to hold the part - the part of the instrument being annealed - in place (while heating that part much hotter than the lead solder melting point).

' just in case any of these suggestions (in these two posts) seem viable...perhaps when run up a flagpole to your local repair person.