Posted by Charlie Krause on September 25, 2001 at 07:47:41:
In Reply to: miraphone clones posted by Ben J. on September 25, 2001 at 07:27:31:
The 2103 and the 25 are both great. The imperial Sanders is a tuba made in China for Custom and they are copies of other tubas. The lower end Imperial tubas are cheap looking and the cases are bad plastic. The only thing good about them is that the linkage is strong.
They have intonation issues and there are huge differences between each one.
Both the Schmidt 2103's and the VMI's are good solid professional tubas that are made well and with great workmanship. Same goes with the Meinl 25. Meinl 25's and Miraphone S186's are about the same price.
All of these tubas will give you years of great service.
In the shops section here on Tubenet, you can find all the companies that sell all 3 tubas.
Good Luck