Miraphone Kaiser Tuba linkage upgrade

[TheBerlinerTuba]

I recently upgraded the valve linkage of a early 1980s Miraphone 190 BBb Kaiser Tuba and thought some folks would like to see the process: See the photo description.

[TheBerlinerTuba]

Part 2

[Casca Grossa]

I have two Mirafones from the mid 80's. One with the original white nylon linkage and one with modern linkage. I still like the feel of the original better. Nice work though. Thanks for posting.

[bloke]

It pleases me that you retained the original action arms.


(For a couple of years - who knows how far back) Miraphone used the DVS-style action arms with BLACK PLASTIC versions of the metal Minibal (small size that Miraphone uses) links. That black plastic was very brittle, and (at least, with school use, but I'd wager private use as well) broke apart within a year or two.

Thankfully, those action arms were already threaded to the smaller threads - as you've redone those, and I could just replace them with metal Minibal links...
(At that time, I didn't stock as many Minibal links as I do now...I'd temporarily stick something adapted from one of the smaller sizes of "hobby" links - so the school could use their tuba, and order in a couple of Minibal links. That having been said, when the metal Minibal links arrived - and I notified the school - they made excuses to not turn loose of those instruments, probably because the "temporary" hobby-shop plastic links - filed down for their shape to function - were "good enough" for them, and they really didn't care about repairing something that was functioning.)

also...
The rest of that tuba (from what can be seen, and considering its age) looks to be in great condition.

[York-aholic]

@TheBerlinerTuba Beer earned.

[Grumpikins]

Very nice work. Love how you documented each step. I bet they work really well. I like the "S" style links because they look classy. As for how they work compared to the modern ones, I dont have experience there. Thank you for your post.

[the elephant]

Nice, Jake!

[prodigal]

It pleases me that you retained the original action arms.


(For a couple of years - who knows how far back) Miraphone used the DVS-style action arms with BLACK PLASTIC versions of the metal Minibal (small size that Miraphone uses) links. That black plastic was very brittle, and (at least, with school use, but I'd wager private use as well) broke apart within a year or two.

Thankfully, those action arms were already threaded to the smaller threads - as you've redone those, and I could just replace them with metal Minibal links...
(At that time, I didn't stock as many Minibal links as I do now...I'd temporarily stick something adapted from one of the smaller sizes of "hobby" links - so the school could use their tuba, and order in a couple of Minibal links. That having been said, when the metal Minibal links arrived - and I notified the school - they made excuses to not turn loose of those instruments, probably because the "temporary" hobby-shop plastic links - filed down for their shape to function - were "good enough" for them, and they really didn't care about repairing something that was functioning.)

also...
The rest of that tuba (from what can be seen, and considering its age) looks to be in great condition.

Those black hard plastic linkages were absolutely crap. I epoxied mine up to keep them working in undergrad, but they just felt so d@mn brittle smashing down the valves.

[prodigal]

Very nice work. Love how you documented each step. I bet they work really well. I like the "S" style links because they look classy. As for how they work compared to the modern ones, I dont have experience there. Thank you for your post.

My 1960 186CC has the S links. They work MUCH better than the aforementioned crappy hard plastic ones on my previous 1998 186CC, and look great in the process!

Geez, you guys are really trying to turn me to the dark side again, back to BBb. Gonna hafta try me a Kaiser some day.

[bloke]

I guess what I was saying was that what you've done here is what Miraphone did (for a short number of years) with black plastic versions of those same links, but should never have tried it with black plastic. They should have done just what you did.