Sousa stand?

[WakinAZ]

...The Wenger chair thing...You guys who are recommending these are not recommending them for portability (community band/jazz band, etc.), are you?...

Nope. They are not particularly heavy, but just kinda bulky. The portability is not a huge issue for me, since I already have my horn inside an MTS case, a music stand, a bag or briefcase and a large hiking type water bottle stowed in various places inside and outside my truck. I just throw the chair in last in the bed of the truck. I'd rather make an extra trip to/from the truck and be comfortable in my best playing posture.

Like Klaus' friend, I lift the horn off the bell support part of the chair to enter and exit. I also use 3(!) tuning bits, to reach me better as I sit up straight and also since I tend to blow sharp in warmer weather.

Eric "who drags a son or two to performances when he can" L.

[tofu]

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[imperialbari]

bloke, this frame from your home-video with MA in conjunction with this ad

1950JollyGreenGiantsNibletsAd.jpg

suggests that our little old lady may have her roots in the corn belt.

K

[MaryAnn]

So the answer MA is:

Ditch the Sousie, forget the stand and get yourself a lightweight Eb helicon. That one Russ Dickman had for sale sure looked and sounded nice!

I almost bought an Eb 4-valve Helicon, but I reminded myself before the transaction occurred that several times I had paid shipping to find out in the first five seconds that the instrument would not work for me ergonomically. I vowed never to do that again, and only barely caught myself in time.

This sousa is on loan from a friend, locally, so I have time to fiddle with figuring out the ergonomics without the shipping cost expenditure. BTW, I find it surprisingly large bore, especially as compared to my MW 182 F.

BTW, what "model number" is an older brass Conn Eb sousa, with etching on the bell....there is a diamond etched with a lady's face/head inside. Not an entire lady, just the head.

MA

[imperialbari]

To my knowledge Conn only made two different Eb sousaphones. The 26K has 3 pistons, and the 28K has four pistons.

All silly jokes about your size set aside: exactly that sub-average size gives you a larger selection of relevant sousaphones than is available to elderly stacks of tyres like in the old Michelin symbol. King and possibly other US makers made full circle Eb sousaphones, where the Conns have a piece of fake (that is acoustically inactive) tubing in the shoulder rest area. To find sufficient length of tubing for a main tuning slide these makers had to diminish the diameter of the outer circle.

No reports indicate these smallish Eb sousaphones being inferior instruments per se. The only problem I might see with them would be that they possibly are too small to sit optimally in a Wenger chair. Despite my liking of the Wenger chair this point hardly qualifies as a disqualifying factor, but unlike with a great deal of my other opinions, this one will never come to a test on myself. The 26K and 28K cover whatever needs I have for Eb sousaphones, so I see no reason at all to take up any diameter challenges. Disclaimer: the Sales subforum of TubeNet some months ago presented a King Eb helicon conglomerated out of a sousaphone body and a tuba bell much in the style of what bloke did in Eb on a York basis and in CC with Reynolds’ parts. Photos and sound samples really caught my interest.

There also is a 5 valve Eb helicon with rotary valves sitting next to ready for a potential sale in the house of a TubeNetter having a very close relative in your town. I write in code-mode as it is not my task publicly to arrange deals not involving my own money. However if this transaction comes through, it won’t be the first time I have seen potentially successful matches of instruments and players.

K