Things moved pretty quickly at the end of this build. After putting on a new mouthpipe, cleaning everything, and getting all the parts back together, the last major thing to fix was the first valve slide.

This slide was all wonky. The best guess as to “why” was there was damage and a prior repairman used parts at hand to make it work. When I took it apart I could also see that the brace broke; something very unhappy happened to that slide at some point.

To fix it I had to make a new “leg” for the slide, which involved matching the ferrule. I used the lathe and I’m happy with how close I came to the original. The one on the horn, it was clearly not original to the instrument.

The new ferrule was made with a piece of a slide from another Mirafone horn, and the brass tube is from a Yamaha. You can tell it is not exactly the same, but it is close enough that on casual inspection you would never notice.

And with that the horn is essentially done except for some polishing on slides and such. As I write, I’ve been testing it for about a week.

What do I think of the resulting horn? I love how it looks. I’m inclined to think it has a rich sound that projects, and I absolutely love the slurs.

The remainder of this article was updated shortly after initial posting.

As to some specifics, the intonation, at first, I thought it was not very good. Which puzzled me, as I put a Lawson mouthpipe on the horn (one I had on hand, which fit the horn perfectly!), which should be pretty locked in for tuning. In my past I had also played for a while, in Nashville and then in Potsdam (and also the year I taught in Taiwan), a 500,000 series Conn 8D with a Lawson pipe and flare. What it mostly took was for me to practice on the Mirafone Kruspe a few times and come to terms with the main slide needing some significant “pull” (but actually about the same as my vintage Kruspe, which I didn’t expect either). When I came to terms with that, the horn perked up. Tuning feels like it should settle in nicely as I play it more.

Unrelated I’m sure, but the day it started perking up for me as a player was the day the new case arrived for the horn. Coincidence? Or did the horn know? It fits perfectly in a Protec MAX case.

I added buttons to extend the valve levers, because as built they were quite a reach. These buttons are old friends, they were on my Paxman 25A for years (replaced there by 1962 dimes). This leaves it feeling pretty good to my hands, although I might wish the thumb had a shorter throw — something I could have said about my 8D as well. At least it certainly feels better to the left hand than my vintage Kruspe, which would probably be more suited to someone with smaller hands.

The big negative I felt initially was that the horn weighs a lot. I have not played a horn this heavy in a long while; it’s almost as heavy as my Paxman compensating triple. That said, and I still need to play the horn for someone, my sense is that it probably has pretty good projection and would fill a room. There is a principle that the heavier horn is kind of like the bigger hammer, it can help projection.

Comparing it with my big Paxman 25A in particular, I think this horn has some potential. A big sound, a bit of edge when you want it, responsive. Nice slurs across ranges, rock solid high Bb. So, as of this moment, I’m going to give this unique instrument a chance.

(The project is not quite finished in the photo below, but it only needs a bit of polish and final cleanup)