Sousaphone ID

[imperialbari]

Everything looks American when it comes to the airpath through the valve block. That airpath never was seen in European low brasses until the York Master line was made by Böhm & Meinl during the first decades after WWII.

Now that airpath can be seen in front action tubas from makers in Germany and Switzerland. However I don't remember seeing that airpath in European sousaphones. These in general have valveblocks which may be called turned-around-top-action blocks.

What is slightly unusual on the sousaphone in question is the length of the lower slide of the 3rd valve tubing. It is rather short. And the top knuckles are correspondingly longer. I haven't seen that before. Taught by the unpleasant recent situation, where a poster asked for a solution of a problem caused by a falsely replaced lower leadpipe without starting out by telling about any replacement or modification, I have to ask you for a very good look at the top knuckles. They maybe are not the original design, and then any guessing is futile.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

[iiipopes]

Compare this block to the old Buescher Eb helicon in the for sale section:

viewtopic.php?f=4&p=246671" target="_blank

and these pictures (if you can see through the 4th valve tubing):

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Wood ... elicon.htm" target="_blank