Tubas, euphoniums, mouthpieces, and anything music-related.
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I have a bought-new beautiful one (belongs to a customer) here to (only) make the #1 slide work a little better and vent the #1 rotor.
This thing rocks. (Though admittedly I've not played one), I wonder why they thought they needed to introduce a 494...??
I believe the 494 bore size is more like a 185, whereas the 282 (still a 3/4-ish instrument) bore size is the same as as the model 186 - ie. .768") with the model 182 4th rotor's bore size being something sorta goofy...maybe .796".
I like the 282 better than the 184 and the 185 B-flats.
I wonder if I would also like it better than the 494.
The only thing I would probably change on the 282 would be to reconfigure the #4 circuit somewhat, so as the #4 slide (on the back) had more tuning range, and enough tuning range to negotiate the very low range with (only) four valves.
I tried the Wessex version of that and found it quite nice with the usual problem of apparently my lungs cannot handle the length of a BBb. A pro horn playing friend who picked up tuba after he retired from Phantom (he went nuts when I started playing, decided he'd better not mess with his chops, and waited,) got a used 282 and played the snot out of it. Big lungs and plenty talent.
Thought Criminal
Mack Brass Artiste
TU422L with TU25
1964 Conn 36k with CB Arnold Jacobs
Accent (By B&S) 952R with Bach12
The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column
The Miraphone 282 tells me what a Bach 869 COULD HAVE been HAD UMI used either the Conn 36K sousaphone valve section (.734" bore) or Selmer/Signet/Bundy/Buescher sousaphone valve section (.726" bore) and put it on the (Olds O-99) body of that instrument.
Had the chance of play this one when visiting Miraphone in Germany a few years ago. Very nice horn, unclear why it isn’t seen more often (other than the valve placement which I found not unpleasant).
I had wrist nerve problems from playing my piggy for years and I did a poor man's angled valve section. Being a rotor fan, I would have loved something like this or a marzan
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I have loved the 282 for years (which could be confirmed through my old reviews - if they still existed). I haven’t been able to test the 494 yet, but it will have to work extra hard to beat the 282. IMHO, of course.
This is a way-over-there sidebar, but I'm still convinced that the best length for fifth valves on B-flat tubas is usually an adjusted semitone, as B-flat tubas already feature a nice low F - available by simply depressing the fourth valve.
Since this length is the once-and-for-all solution to the "2-4 is too short and 5-2-3 is too long" problem - and low F is not a problem with B-flat tubas, why not solve this problem with a fifth valve - rather than fixing a double low E-flat which is rarely written in music compared to those two pitches mentioned just previously in this same paragraph?
I have one B-flat tuba set up with an adjusted semitone 5th valve and one set up with an adjusted whole tone. The adjusted whole tone works out on the factory fifth valve B-flat tuba only because - for whatever reason - the 2-4 B-natural isn't very sharp, certainly not compared to most 2-4 B-naturals with most B-flat tubas.
...and yes, quite often fourth valve low F is not in tune with fourth valve C - speaking of B-flat tubas, so the perfect fingering for B natural sometimes (with the adjusted semitone B-flat tuba 5th valve) would be 5-1-3. As much as some of us resist new valve combinations, it's really alluring to have valve combinations available which are absolutely on the money, as far as tuning is concerned. Whether it's just a march bass line at mezzo forte or critically-tuned low brass chords at pianissimo or triple fortissimo, the correct length of tubing is one of the things that makes playing a true pleasure, at least to me.
I just came back from Miraphone and asked what the difference was between the 282 and the 494. They said that their goal was to make the 494 play clearer in the lower register.
pjv wrote: ↑Fri Jul 21, 2023 3:31 pm
I just came back from Miraphone and asked what the difference was between the 282 and the 494. They said that their goal was to make the 494 play clearer in the lower register.
Obligatory joke incoming:
I would've sworn the difference was 212.
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