Posted by SHS Tubamaster on February 27, 2003 at 21:34:40:
In Reply to: Re: Silver vs. Laquer posted by John Cooper on February 26, 2003 at 12:42:39:
This is much my situation. Right now it looks like the big day for tuba-buying is sometime in the third week of March. We're making an excursion to IN to make the big purchase(trumpet, tuba, and the trimmings) and my prime considerations are
Miraphone S186
Miraphone 187
Miraphone 189
Miraphone 1291
As you can see, none of these horns are silver. I think that there isn't much difference, and Rick is right- a bad silver horn (older Jupiter 382) is worse than a good lacquer tuba. My only other experience with the silver junker was that it was a pain in the A** to maintain-it was so small it looked like it had a satin silver finish when I first picked it up out of the case due to the fingerprints. Two reasons for the above choices-this brand has proved to be super, and there are no CC tubas cheap enough for our purposes. The only reason we can afford any of these is the $650 down payment I'm making on the horn. My advice-Go with what you like the best, and don't always stick to the rules of the majority.
SHS"who thinks college could be conquered on a 20J, if it had a fourth valve" Tubamaster