maybe (??), just save up for a real Miraphone

[bloke]

Finishing fitting the bearings to the rotors on these is drudgery.
Sure: They can put some goop on the spindles that might last a week or a month, but - after that - they're going to sound like the four (of the five) of these, because of the vertical play that they leave in them.

I guess you can tell (volume on) which one I've fit...(??)
(No...I didn't oil it.)

[Casca Grossa]

Finishing fitting the bearings to the rotors on these is drudgery.
Sure: They can put some goop on the spindles that might last a week or a month, but - after that - they're going to sound like the four (of the five) of these, because of the vertical play that they leave in them.

I guess you can tell (volume on) which one I've fit...(??)
(No...I didn't oil it.)

I had one for about 7 years. Mine never sounded like that. I did eventually save up and get a real Mirafone though.

[bloke]

The next thing on their list is aligning the #1 and #5 slides.

The far end of the #1 outside slide assembly is too far apart, so I'll be heating the tight 90-degree out of the #1 rotor and letting that thing out (towards the pair of outside slide tubes) by .0XX".

The far end of the #5 outside slide assembly is also too far apart and the tubes are skew. It's at the end of that new-style dogleg, so I'm hoping that rotating that dogleg and getting the tubes coplanar ALSO fixes the parallel issue.

Once the outside slide tubes are parallel and coplanar, I can space the inside slide assemblies (removable slides) to line up with the pairs of outside slide tubes.

This is why (Japanese, cheap Chinese, better Chinese, best Chinese, German, Swiss, Czech, American, made-wherever) it might be a good idea to AVOID a factory silver plated instrument, if the plan it to eventually "blueprint" parts (or all) of it.

(A couple of things on their list, I believe I'm going to attempt to talk them out of doing, as I believe it would sell for more were I to NOT do those - undisclosed, here - things. This person - in the past - was a pretty accomplished player, their finances are in way better shape than they've been in - in a long time, and they have the time again - after all these years - to regain their prowess. I see them as selling this and moving on to something that will keep pace with their own soon-to-be-recaptured technique/musicality.)

[jtm]

My Miraphone is 40 years old (so somebody else saved up for it, I guess), and the rotors are quiet. Same for the two 40 year old B&S tubas, though, so maybe it's not just Miraphones.

[Mary Ann]

After playing but not buying other stuff, I get Miraphones. Even old dented beat-up ones are night and day better.

[bloke]

I got the valves quiet, and some of it is going to rely on screws staying tight (??)

A couple of the bearings were able to be adjusted back in without me having to remove any material. Why did they ease their way out, even though they make them fit so tightly that I have to whack on them so hard to drive them in and out?

...They still don't feel like Miraphone valves under my fingers...very distracting...

I realize that I mostly post about intonation characteristics when I'm discussing instruments, but - with my own instruments- I just don't except or allow any tactile distractions. I don't want to be thinking about (or necessarily even aware of) the piece of machinery that I'm using to make the sounds.

Occasionally when people bring me their instruments from a fairly good distance away and ask me to do this and that, I can't help but scream to myself in my head, "but you don't care about this this and this...?!?!"
After taking care of the stuff that they ask me to take care of, I'll ask about those glaring things (using a low-key-sounding voice). Sometimes they agree to have me address those things and sometimes they tell me that those things don't matter to them.

[bloke]

Mrs. bloke helped hold the tuba at funny angles and handed me things while I was making these #1 and #5 outside slide pairs coplanar and parallel...followed up by taking the slides themselves apart and fitting them to the properly-configured-to-each-other outside tubes.





I took out some bell creases and dinks.

(Again) they're asking me to do a couple of things I view as ill-advised, along with requesting a couple of lever-style water keys in some remote spots.
I can probably get the water keys placed.

I sorta wish (rather than helping me) Mrs. bloke had put the finishing touches on that Conn baritone saxophone re-pad job, today.
(Admittedly, neither of us spend much time in our workrooms on weekends, but never none.)
oh well...Sunday, "the day of more work", is up next.

I don't believe this person will be around for quite a while to pick this up, but I just want to put it to rest and forget about it.

I spent some time today doing preliminary work on aligning the slide tubes on a Holton BB345 valve section.
Those Holton 345 6/4s' factory tuning slides' alignment wasn't any better than that with these jimbo tubas.

[Heavy_Metal]

But @bloke , with the bearings that quiet, they don't add to the percussion section