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What is the King KSP411 sousaphone? I see it has appeared on the market. Anyone know anything about it?

Jason

Looks Chinese.

The KSP411 is King's offering of a "performance" sousaphone. The biggest differences between it and other "standard" sousaphones like the 2350 is that it's lighter weight and marketed as being more ergonomic than other options. We bought some a couple of years ago for our high school marching band, and we honestly regret it. While they are lighter weight, the lightness gives it the feeling of a cheap quality horn. They do not feel more ergonomic than other sousaphones. There's an additional shoulder plate/brace that isn't comfortable and forces you to hold it a certain way, otherwise it feels odd. Besides that, the two we got have some bizarre intonation tendencies. A standard concert F at the bottom of the staff is quite flat (almost 30 cents) and the G on the bottom line can also be just as flat. Not great when those are frequently played notes. The tone is also mediocre, but it's what you could expect from a lightweight metal horn; it falls somewhere between that of a fiberglass horn and a quality horn (in my opinion something like an older Conn 20K or the King 2350). You can create a decent sound, but once you really start to push any dynamics past forte, it's easy to break tone and splat.

If you're looking to purchase one or many, my recommendation would be to try them both if at all possible (local music stores, local bands, etc.) as well as compare them to what you already have. It could very well be the case that we got a couple of bad ones. I've enjoyed just about every other instrument King makes, but the KSP411 missed the mark in my opinion. Hope this helps!

Thank you!