Mack miraclone ?

[MikeMason]

I have an incoming student who is considering buying one of these. I owned one around 12 years ago and it was decent considering price. Anyone bought one recently and if so,how is it?

[PlayTheTuba]

I haven't tried the Mack 410 CC but the person that I took lessons from recommends the one with the gold brass bell. Or if budget allows the John Packer JP379CC as well. Not sure how helpful that is though.

[arpthark]

I had a 2019 one marked Dillon, but obviously the same Jin Bao.

I owned a 2014 one, a 2017 one, and this 2019 one, all bought used. The newest one was by far the best of them. I was surprised that the QC has improved so much. The slide fitment was very good. Intonation is wonderful. Rotors themselves were very fast, but I sliced open my hand on one when I pulled it out -- very sharp edges from the factory. Some instances of lacquer acid bleed near ferrules. The weakest link (pun intended) is the linkage, which was rather clattery, but still usable. I ended up tightening it up pretty often. I played "Theme and Variations on Barnacle Bill the Sailor" with my band on it and got a lot of compliments on the sound.

The thing I liked best was that they started using the more modern Miraphone-style fifth valve bar instead of the older-style thumb paddle. It was very ergonomic.

Low range is a bit tight but nothing out of the ordinary for these tubas. I don't think a better bang-for-your-buck CC tuba exists. Used, they regularly pop up around $1,500.

[LibraryMark]

...
The weakest link (pun intended) is the linkage, which was rather clattery, but still usable. I ended up tightening it up pretty often.
...

I can concur. My 410 is a decent horn for the money but I hate the linkages. They are really cheaply made and out of charactor with the rest of the horn. I tell people that it came with it's own percussion section - they really clatter. Near as I can tell, a lot of Chinese tubas come with the same linkage parts - they really should revisit that. My only other complaint is the tuning slide is too short, but that might say more about my face than the horn. Does anyone else think the tuning slide should be longer?

[Casca Grossa]

I owned one for 7 or 8 years. Intonation was fantastic. It was heavier than the 186 and could take a little more volume without breaking up. My rotors were a tad on the noisy side but not as bad as I have heard other people say. My slides were pretty good but could probably have been aligned a bit better. I got lots of compliments when I played it. The only "bad notes" on the horn, if you wanted to call them that were Db below the staff, Eb and E in the staff. I had to play the Db 2-4 with the fourth slide pulled. Every Mirafone I have every owned required the E in the staff played 1-2 and the Eb 2-3 so they were never an issue for me. Pretty musch every other note on the horn was dead on accurate. I did the regular 1st valve slide pulls and did some 5th slide pulls in the low end but nothing major. Some people complained about low Ab below the staff and added a tuning slide stick to pull the 3rd valve slide for that not. Mine was only about 5 cents sharp and was easily lipped into place. I really enjoyed mine. The only reason I let it go was to get a Mirafone 184 because of hand issues I have. The 184 fits my hand the best. Hope this helps.

PS...If you watch Tom's original demo videos on the 186 clone, he is playing them all on the horn that I bought. It was the only one he had left in stock and asked if he could hold onto it for two extra weeks so he could shoot the videos.

Edit...yes I did the TNFJ thing and misread your post. I did not purchase mine recently, so you can ignore everything I just posted.