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Folks - I have a Mack Brass 410 that, while I like it a lot, I am always on the sharp side with it, and to me the tuning slide is just too short. That and the first valve slide seems really short too. I don't play this horn often because of this, but as I get older I am looking at lighter options than my main horn, a VMI 3302. While I really love the VMI, it's a heavy sucker.

What all is involved in making the tuning slide longer? And - anyone care to ballpark how much this might run?

Has anyone else encountered this on these clones?

An in-the-door slide-lengthening might cost $150 - $175, these days.
Pre-2021, I probably would have charged less.
The job would include longer ferrules and bore-consistency inserts.

If I didn't happen to have the correct two sizes of tubing in my junk, I would also charge cost for Miraphone to send me the four (pre-cut - why not?) pieces of tubing, but might charge less for my labor.

This isn't a contradiction, but it's from experience...


When people have ordered longer or shorter slides for their Miraphone tubas, they almost always end up calling some repair person, because they often don't slide in very nicely. It's just that they don't seem to make them down to the last thousandth of an inch - as far as fit - and they are not completely consistent. If there were a longer or shorter Jinbao 186 copy slide, I would suspect that the chance of the same thing occurring would be high.

I didn't like the length of my Miraphone 98 main tuning slide, and - instead of asking Miraphone for one that's shorter, I knew that just taking apart the one I had and shortening it myself was the only way to go, because something they sent would probably have to be taken apart and put back together anyway - in order to make it slide nicely on my tuba.

(Actually, my model 98 tuba is fairly complex in the way that the main slide is built, and I actually had to actually take apart a couple of things on the instrument itself in addition to taking the slide apart and putting it back together, but that's another story - boringly documented in an old repair thread.)
>> A Miraphone 186 or a copy is not complex like that.

Dents Be Gone! wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 9:55 am Have you contacted the Mack Brass to see if they might have longer tuning slides on hand?

Seems like I remember hearing that he stocks some parts.

(I know that Miraphone offers these for their instruments…)

I have not had a whole lot of luck getting Mack Brass to respond to requests for parts.

LibraryMark wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:55 am

Dents Be Gone! wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 9:55 am Have you contacted the Mack Brass to see if they might have longer tuning slides on hand?

Seems like I remember hearing that he stocks some parts.

(I know that Miraphone offers these for their instruments…)

I have not had a whole lot of luck getting Mack Brass to respond to requests for parts.

Have you tried calling? Tom is hard to reach via email but I've talked to him over the phone a handful of times.

bloke wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 9:26 am An in-the-door slide-lengthening might cost $150 - $175, these days.

Thanks for the info - that's less than I though it would be. Sadly, Bloke - You are too far away.

There are ways to nearly ensure that a slide will still slide in to an instrument smoothly if the slide is sent off by itself to be altered remotely, but the person who sends it needs to send some really specific and accurate information

Something else is that outside slide pairs (if an inside slide assembly is altered remotely) need to be very nicely parallel, and this isn't always the case with $9000 tubas and certainly is not always case with $2,000 tubas.

LibraryMark wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 8:35 am Folks - I have a Mack Brass 410 that, while I like it a lot, I am always on the sharp side with it, and to me the tuning slide is just too short. That and the first valve slide seems really short too. I don't play this horn often because of this, but as I get older I am looking at lighter options than my main horn, a VMI 3302. While I really love the VMI, it's a heavy sucker.

What all is involved in making the tuning slide longer? And - anyone care to ballpark how much this might run?

Has anyone else encountered this on these clones?

@Dan Schultz lengthened mine - I had the same issue on my non-Mac, same horn, tuba. Contact him and ask.

Do you have a local guy who has the ability to disassemble the the five components of your main tuning slide, put it back together with some substitute components, shine it up, and shoot some rattle can lacquer on it?

Q

LibraryMark wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:55 am
I have not had a whole lot of luck getting Mack Brass to respond to requests for parts.

A

arpthark wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:56 am

Have you tried calling? Tom is hard to reach via email but I've talked to him over the phone a handful of times.

I needed one several years ago.

I called.

He sent.

It fit.

Three Valves wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 3:22 pm Q

LibraryMark wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:55 am
I have not had a whole lot of luck getting Mack Brass to respond to requests for parts.

A

arpthark wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 7:56 am

Have you tried calling? Tom is hard to reach via email but I've talked to him over the phone a handful of times.

I needed one several years ago.

I called.

He sent.

It fit.

You requested a longer tuning slide?

bloke wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 2:15 pm Do you have a local guy who has the ability to disassemble the the five components of your main tuning slide, put it back together with some substitute components, shine it up, and shoot some rattle can lacquer on it?

When I do this I will probably use Mark Metzler in Elkhart IN.

LibraryMark wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 3:25 pm

bloke wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 2:15 pm Do you have a local guy who has the ability to disassemble the the five components of your main tuning slide, put it back together with some substitute components, shine it up, and shoot some rattle can lacquer on it?

When I do this I will probably use Mark Metzler in Elkhart IN.

I don't know him personally, but I've heard of him. And if I've heard of him, I'm sure that he's good. I'm also confident that he can get those long ferrules and bore spacers from Miraphone.

bloke wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 3:28 pm

LibraryMark wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 3:25 pm

bloke wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 2:15 pm Do you have a local guy who has the ability to disassemble the the five components of your main tuning slide, put it back together with some substitute components, shine it up, and shoot some rattle can lacquer on it?

When I do this I will probably use Mark Metzler in Elkhart IN.

I don't know him personally, but I've heard of him. And if I've heard of him, I'm sure that he's good. I'm also confident that he can get those long ferrules and bore spacers from Miraphone.

A lot of my tuba friends up here tell me he's the only one they trust with their horns. I had him fix the valves on an JP377 (one that you worked on, Bloke) to make the valve to keep from sticking and he did a wonderful job.

That's interesting, because I mostly drop-ship those tubas and don't recall working on any of them, other than maybe one or two early ones that had fourth valve circuits that were too long - a problem that they fixed at the factory, not long after... but there are lots of things that I don't remember these days.

bloke wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 3:40 pm That's interesting, because I mostly drop-ship those tubas and don't recall working on any of them, other than maybe one or two early ones that had fourth valve circuits that were too long - a problem that they fixed at the factory, not long after... but there are lots of things that I don't remember these days.

And as I remember, that is what you did to it. It does not have a name or serial on it but it's a JP377. I bought it off a tuba player who was at Fort Campbell. I used that horn in a brass band. It's a nice instrument. The Eb gentleman who I sat next to in brass band picked it up by accident and played several tunes before he realized that it was not his Besson. Left that band and now the only time I ever play the horn is to play the piccolo part to Stars and Stripes Forever in the local summer band.

That one was lacquered.

I also did a silver one...pain in the butt (cosmetics)

LibraryMark wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 3:24 pm
You requested a longer tuning slide?

Yes.

I had the B210 variety.