Miraphone bags

Tubas, euphoniums, mouthpieces, and anything music-related.
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bloke
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by bloke »

peterbas wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 11:47 am How I use top loader bag.
Put tuba on bell.
Grab handle with right hand, lid with the left hand.
Wiggle it over the tuba.
Lift the tuba with the right with the elbow pointing toward the end of the bag so you get some rotation, the left hand grabs the bell to help the rotation.
But bag bottom bow on the floor.
Rotate bag quarter turn to the left, use your knees to keep the bag steady.
Put lid on the bell and close the zippers.
Done.

Should be ready to go half way reading through the text, and try to keep the tuba+bag as close as possible to your body to minimize any strain.
yep.
Were there no backstage tables, and
were there I not resolved to use hard cases...

I would have a top-load bag, and do this.


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Mary Ann
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by Mary Ann »

peterbas wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 11:47 am How I use top loader bag.
----
I do what you do pretty much but have to tip the tuba over on its side, grab the edge of the bell, and pull it upright onto the bow to fasten the top strings with current Altieri and NStar. If this Mphone bag fits the Hagen, it will be the same general technique but both tuba and bag are heavier than NStar and Altieri. I will add velcro to edge of lid and relative position on bag, so I don't need three hands. I still have no plans to play the Hagen anywhere but want to be ready in case that happens. With the backpack straps stitched on WAY too high for me to carry it on my back (just try walking with a bottom bow banging the back of your knees,) it will be either wagon time or hand truck time. The Mphone bag is well padded and I'd be confident of the best "bag protection" I can get. No dents over many years of bags and tubas at a variety of venues, that had anything to do with getting dented IN the bag.
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by bloke »

I've rarely suffered any bag dents (to be candid), but my life situations are somewhat different from those of most:

- It's not uncommon for me to head out-of-town with both a tuba and the cimbasso (which is in a rectangular "road" case).
- Road cases and tuba bags (and luggage) don't "play" particularly nicely with each other.
- It's not unheard of for me to have two tubas, a cimbasso and a euphonium (for two or three misc. jobs in a single day).
- Further, it's not absolutely unheard of for me to have all of that stuff, a trumpet, a couple of trombones, etc. all jammed into the back of the Toyota Matrix..
ie. "Hey bloke, could you take this/these horns from me, repair them, and bring them back to the next gig?" (etc.)

...which is why I decided to long-term store my bags and embrace the reality that (me: bloke...NOT you...NOT y'all) I really need hard cases for my instruments.
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by Mary Ann »

Ah, Last Word Bloke again, abbreviated LWB.

Word.
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bloke (Wed Sep 25, 2024 2:21 pm)
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by peterbas »

Mary Ann wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 12:19 pm
peterbas wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 11:47 am How I use top loader bag.
----
I do what you do pretty much but have to tip the tuba over on its side, grab the edge of the bell, and pull it upright onto the bow to fasten the top strings with current Altieri and NStar. If this Mphone bag fits the Hagen, it will be the same general technique but both tuba and bag are heavier than NStar and Altieri. I will add velcro to edge of lid and relative position on bag, so I don't need three hands. I still have no plans to play the Hagen anywhere but want to be ready in case that happens. With the backpack straps stitched on WAY too high for me to carry it on my back (just try walking with a bottom bow banging the back of your knees,) it will be either wagon time or hand truck time. The Mphone bag is well padded and I'd be confident of the best "bag protection" I can get. No dents over many years of bags and tubas at a variety of venues, that had anything to do with getting dented IN the bag.
Yes, same move. I'm going the see if can add velcro to the lid, I doesnt nicely follows the rest of the bag.
With my StPete bag I crossed the back straps at the bottom and used only one strap for not too long distances but the Mphone bag straps can't be changed so quickly.

Has been posted before? but the Hagen bag also fits model 1291, model 1292 New Yorker, model 291 Bruckner, model 494 Hagen, model 91, model M7000 Ambassador, model M7050 Ambassador.
So same one I have for my 91.
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by bloke »

I've had pick-em-up trux, and I have a full-size work van...but - even though the gas prices seem to be a bit lower around here - I still don't like buying any more of it than I can (ending with a preposition) get away with buying (nor any other bought-and-gone stuff). :thumbsup:

me...?? probably a former quasi-(not genuine)-hippie....the "bass-fiddle-in-a-Volkswagen-Beetle" type of guy...
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by Mary Ann »

peterbas wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 2:07 pm
Has been posted before? but the Hagen bag also fits model 1291, model 1292 New Yorker, model 291 Bruckner, model 494 Hagen, model 91, model M7000 Ambassador, model M7050 Ambassador.
So same one I have for my 91.
That is what miraphone told me, with a model number ending in 107.
I will see what arrives - the model number of the bag was for those tubas but the description did not match. I don't think they had any idea what they had and are just blindly sending out things to anyone dumb enough to bite on the ad (me.) It was $45 cheaper than otherwise, as "open box," meaning they probably sent the wrong one to the first person who bought it.

Sometimes I make stupid mistakes for stupid reasons. Hopefully I don't have to eat shipping, which would more than negate the minor deal I thought I was getting. Or try to sell locally at the U. Way too big for the NStar.
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by Mary Ann »

Well, relief. It is the right bag and it appears new. A tight fit but a fit. I assume it will loosen up just a bit. The description they had with it was "For extra large CC and BBb tubas," which this is not.
Stick-on velcro does not work to hold on this material though.
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by peterbas »

Yes, I also found it surprising that it is the same bag as for the 91.
Maybe the Hagen has a less compact wrap.

Didn't have high hopes for stick-on velcro on the cordura, but thank you for testing it.
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by Mary Ann »

Soon I will be able to post a picture of me with the Hagen so you all can laugh at the size contrast. Ergonomically it works well for me though, with the box and the chair pad.
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by LeMark »

Just for reference. This me with a 494
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by Mary Ann »

Is that the 494 that is now mine, that I bought because of your recommendation (with thanks!)?
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by LeMark »

I think so, yes. If you bought it from Dillon, they only had one in stock at that time
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by the elephant »

Here is how I load a clamshell bag:

Lay bag between my legs and my stand.
Rest the bag's upper half against the stand.
Lay the tuba inside the bag.
Close bag.
Zip it up.

Done.
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by the elephant »

Just trying to spread some truth around the neighborhood, here.

I have had to take a Miraphone bag apart fully and the wooden disc in the lid is actually made of pressboard, which is a compressed form of cardboard, and it is completely ruined if you get caught out in a rain storm. It turns into this weird, Pringle-shaped thing that cannot be reshaped flat. Ever. If it gets rained on a few times it is ruined. Period.

I have three of these that have become unusable due to rain. My current two are both in the process, with smile-shaped lids that can, at least, still be zipped shut.

But both of them look ridiculous.

Never again.

I do not know whether Miraphone knows their vendor is lying like this, but the discovery made me quite mad. They ought to delete these hard discs. I have never thought they were a good idea in any bag, ever.
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by LeMark »

That stinks. Is there a way to remove the disc without cutting up the bag?
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by the elephant »

A seamstress here in town told me that she has a machine with an "industrial" needle that can stitch it up with a matching thread through all the various layers so that her work was "hidden", but that enough stitching would have to be cut to get to the disc that it would be expensive. She said a "hack job" could be done for about $30, but the stitching, which would be full-strength, would be "very visible" to even a casual inspection.

The lid is installed fully assembled, so the disc is stitched in far down the assembly process.

Which is unfortunate. If I could do this myself and end up with a decent-looking bag I would do just that, but it is a lot more involved than I can manage and not have the very hack job she warned of.
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by Stryk »

Two words about cases for horns you really cherish:

Jakob Winter
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bloke (Sat Sep 28, 2024 12:42 pm)
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Mirafone 186C, 186BBb, 184C, 186C clone
Gebr. Alexander New 163C, Vintage 163C, Vintage 163BBb
Amati 481C
Lyon & Healy 6/4
Kane Stealth tuba
A plethora of others....
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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by LeMark »

Wondering if it would be a good idea to have some kind of waterproof rain bonnet you could stretch over the disc and the top of the bag in case you have to backpack carry it in the rain


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Re: Miraphone bags

Post by the elephant »

I sold Gard bag once and the buyer did not want the little rain fly that came with it. I use that all the time. That is why the two Miraphone bags (which I like a lot despite it being a top-loading design) are still usable. Both got very wet a couple of times. You must pin the lids in some sort of frame to preserve the lid shape as the cardboard dries, and I have an hour's drive home. If I get the bag wet going into a rehearsal it stays wet without something to keep the lid flat for about four hours. The fly keeps the rim dry, but the rest of the bag gets pretty wet. (The Gard was a very small bag for a 621 F, so the fly is far too small for a 186 bag and fits like a big hat.)
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