Posted by Joe S. on August 22, 1999 at 02:01:20:
In Reply to: old Mirafone 188 vs current 186... posted by Dale on August 21, 1999 at 23:24:10:
I'm pretty certain that the 186 bell is still the same medium large taper that it has always been, and in recent years the flair end of it has just been extended out another inch and a fourth from 16 1/2 inches to about 17 3/4 inches.
The 188, since its original development, has always had a 17 3/4 inch flair, but the rest of the bell has always been chubbier than the 186 taper, as are the other large branches, in comparison to the model 186.
I haven't come across a more in-tune CC tuba than the 188, overall, and I used to own one (a gold-brass version). I don't think that it quite accomplishes the "fatness" or "free-blowing" aspects that Miraphone was probably hoping to accomplish when this "4/4+" instrument first went into production. When I still owned it and was experimenting with mouthpipes, I once put a super-jumbo bore mouthpipe on mine. I almost liked the way that it "felt" with that pipe, but it still felt restrictive compared to what I was looking for. (I've "gone through" a BUNCH of CC tubas "looking".)