Hi HowellSimon,
Miraphone 5050 is handmade in Germany at the Miraphone factory, and is supplied with a Warburton Demondrae Thurman mouthpiece:
Miraphone eG
Traunreuter Stra゚e 8
84478 Waldkraiburg
Germany
Tel +49 8638 96820
Fax +49 8638 82863
E-mail:
info@miraphone.de
contact: Christian Niedermaier
Chief Engineer / Director
Christian.Niedermaier@miraphone.de
Here is some info about the Shires Q40 and Q41 euphoniums, which are joint projects of Shires and its Eastman mother company:
S. Shires Company
260 Hopping Brook Road
Holliston, MA, 01746
Phone:
508-634-6805
Sales: Alexis
Email:
info@seshires.com
I spoke to Alexis at Shires a few months ago about Q40 and Q41. Below is a synopsis of the information I received…
Q40 and Q41 are completely Designed/specified by Shires in Massachussetts.
The two-piece hand-hammered bells are entirely made by Shires, then shipped to Eastman in China for assembly.
All other parts are manufactured by Eastman, including stainless steel pistons and valves.
Horns are assembled by Eastman and then shipped to Shires for hand-lapping, QA, polishing, testing.
According to Alexis, when a Q-series horns leaves the Shires factory, it has achieved the same quality of a custom horn fully made in the US factory.
The case is a large hard plastic shell with foam interior… Extremely robust… Hints that, while lacking a Cordura jacket, it might be more prone to some scuffing than jacketed cases, it should be fine on a flight.
The mouthpiece shipped with Q40 and Q41 is the Shires 5MB, which is made by Pickett.
The cost of lacquer or Silver plate finish is identical.
Alexis believes that Q-series’s multi-layer Silver plate might be a little more durable than lacquer, because lacquer is a very thin single-layer.
There is no price difference for large or medium size receiver.
There is one variant that features only lacquer finish…. I do not remember exactly, but it might be Q40 with large receiver.
Medium size receiver is offered because some large US band customers require medium receivers. But Alexis has not perceived there is a tonal difference between large and medium receivers.
Q41 features an unsoldered crimped bead on the flair to compensate for the slightly more focused tone of the 11.5” bell and the slightly brighter nickel-silver lead pipe… According to Alexis, a soldered receiver would make attacks/tone too laser-like.
Both horns have 3 standard lever-type water keys.
According to Alexis, Q40 with its 12” bell, is powerful, warm, but slightly “woofy”, best suited for line-work in ensembles, while Q41 with its 11.5” bell, might be best suited for solo roles…. Q41 yields a purer more focused voice.
Regards, Guido
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