Posted by Steve Dedman on June 03, 2000 at 09:31:32:
In Reply to: Re: Re: School tuba purchase posted by CW on June 02, 2000 at 23:54:51:
I think that Mirafone has corrected that problem. The horns that I played were all older models, and they had the old, noisy ball and socket linkage, which was still better than what Yamaha was using at the time. The unibal linkage they use now is very fast, and very quiet. I think that Yamaha has also modified their design from the older model that I played.
IMO, the selling points of the Mirafone are the blowing characteristics, which are very different than the Yamaha. Others may prefer the blow of the Yamaha. Both are good horns, much better than the majority of schools have. If your friend is fortunate enough to afford a set of high quality horns, the Mirafone s-186 is probably the best bet. It's the same horn as the pro model 186, with a few cosmetic differences. I haven't played one, but the word is that there's very little difference between the two Mirafone models. I don't know that you can get Yamahas in the $4500 price range, but the s-186 is easily in that range.
You could check with Dave Fedderly (AT) Baltimore Brass about the MW prices. There's a link on the shops page here.