Who made miraphone sousaphones?

[York-aholic]

Did Miraphone make their own sousaphones or were they made by someone else. I think I read a rumor/belief that they may have been made by B&M.

Any thoughts?

[bloke]

I've played one. One time - when I was camping with Boy Scouts up on Crowley's Ridge in Arkansas - I got a cell phone call asking/hiring me to drive an hour back over to downtown Memphis and play with the Tennessee Tech pep band (none of their own tuba students had signed up for that away game) against University of Memphis at a basketball game in the old arena (which is pyramid shaped... since converted to a bait shop) and right by the River. I used my glove box mouthpiece and I used their Miraphone sousaphone. I didn't particularly like playing it, but/and it looked very B&M-ish to me. (Of course, Winston was responsible for them buying those things.)

I tend to wonder if the California people used their "MiraFone" trademark, and just bought those straight from B&M - acting completely independently from MiraPHone...(??)

OK...My glove box mouthpiece - at that time - was one of those nickel-plated Walter Sear hellebergs (which I did not like it all, and since sold), so that may have colored my opinion of that sousaphone, just to be fair.

[tubaing]

I'm in the DC National guard band. We have miraphfone 4 valve sousaphones. Engraved "made in west Germany". Don't know the answer to your question though.

[bloke]

I'm in the DC National guard band. We have miraphfone 4 valve sousaphones. Engraved "made in west Germany". Don't know the answer to your question though.

If you think of it, lay one of those down and snap a picture of the whole thing and then zoom in on the circle and snap a good picture of the front of the plumbing. I'd like to see whether those are just four valve versions of those marketed decades ago, or whether they are something totally different. Are they engraved m i r a p h o n e? Emphasis on ph

[tubaing]

@bloke

Here's a Pic I found on my phone. It didn't fit in this unitec case. Bell was too tall. Notice the crazy 4th valve tuning slide.



Edit higher resolution photo

[bloke]

The top valve caps threaded to the casings sort of look like Miraphone 1291/2/3 but I'm not familiar enough with those - and the picture is not high resolution enough, so inconclusive. I guess I could ask Christian. He would tell me the truth.

Thank you for taking the picture.

[tubaing]

The top valve caps threaded to the casings sort of look like Miraphone 1291/2/3 but I'm not familiar enough with those - and the picture is not high resolution enough, so inconclusive. I guess I could ask Christian. He would tell me the truth.

Thank you for taking the picture.

I reuploaded the pic for higher resolution

[bloke]

OK... thank you.
The brace feet look like the old BM/Symphonic brace feet - which were first designed for the old-old York Master (made in Germany) and which they have continued to make forever (as far as I know), so my best guess would be to agree with (??) the Boehm & Meinl manufacturing of those.