Small sousaphone?

[tofu]

Way too many fiberglass sousaphones just don't cut it for me. I want to have the quick lively response of brass but end up with the dull dead fiberglass sound. I once played a Reynolds that might have helped change my bias but it wasn't really a fair trial run, being that I was playing it in a small living room.

Sure hasn't been my experience. A tuba player with good ears can tell the difference in sound from maybe as far as 10 feet away, but beyond that an audience will never perceive a difference in sound. I think most fiberglass sousaphones are well used beaten to death worn out school horns -so you have to wonder is it the horn material/design or the shape it was in when you played it. And for anybody who has to play a long gig I'd rather have a 36K sousaphone on my shoulder. I've done 5 hour gigs and my shoulder never felt bad. Not so with the 2350 or 20K I have access to. The only thing that rivals the 36K in comfort is my 30K helicon and that's a different animal.

[Donn]

A tuba player with good ears can tell the difference in sound from maybe as far as 10 feet away, but beyond that an audience will never perceive a difference in sound.

What about from 1 foot behind? I think it's terribly hard to evaluate a sousaphone's tone, while playing it.

[Donn]

There's an obscure little South American country where part of a religious ceremony of uncertain origin involves playing a sousaphone while the celebrant's head is as far inside the bell as it will go. That could be useful, but like the above technique, the results are only as good as the person you enlist to be the listener.

[Three Valves]

A tuba player with good ears can tell the difference in sound from maybe as far as 10 feet away, but beyond that an audience will never perceive a difference in sound.

Then why do marching bands with fiberglass sousaphones sound like they have a section of whales with irritatable bowel syndrome?

Because that's just the sound we were aiming for!!

[TheGoyWonder]

A tuba player with good ears can tell the difference in sound from maybe as far as 10 feet away, but beyond that an audience will never perceive a difference in sound.

Then why do marching bands with fiberglass sousaphones sound like they have a section of whales with irritatable bowel syndrome?

The bands themselves. Fiberglass sousaphones are an indicator, physically relevant or not, that they are scraping the bottom.

[pjv]

To clarify what I meant and
maybe get this back on to the subject
-I've heard fiberglass sousaphones sound awesome. I just never played one that didn't make me feel like I was playing it wrong; trying to get the same lively active feel I get when I play a brass sous. I couldn't get the sound I wanted and it made be feel like I was working to hard. The Reynolds was exactly the opposite but then again, I didn't play it extensively and I was playing it in a small room.
-my 14K plays real easy and it's light enough.
-the junior Olds I played (much smaller then the Olds/Reynolds sous we most know) sounded great and was a lot of fun, but I've no idea how it would hold up in a larger ensemble.

[tofu]

A tuba player with good ears can tell the difference in sound from maybe as far as 10 feet away, but beyond that an audience will never perceive a difference in sound.

What about from 1 foot behind? I think it's terribly hard to evaluate a sousaphone's tone, while playing it.

Well this is why you should have some friends. I never take my personal sound evaluation to be what the audience hears & instead rely on the observations of others.

[Donn]

Well this is why you should have some friends.

Are there any other reasons? I'm already set for sousaphones, so ...

[tofu]

Well this is why you should have some friends.

Are there any other reasons? I'm already set for sousaphones, so ...

Well I suppose if you are friendless you could always pay somebody to listen.

[Three Valves]

Well this is why you should have some friends.

Are there any other reasons?...

No.

I don't know about your "friends" but mine always brought weed over.