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I am continually mystified by the leadpipe set up for sousaphones.

Should the correct set up be gooseneck , tuning bit(s??) mouthpiece or are the tuning bits optional??

jmh3412 wrote:I am continually mystified by the leadpipe set up for sousaphones.

Should the correct set up be gooseneck , tuning bit(s??) mouthpiece or are the tuning bits optional??

Sousaphones are made to be played with tuning bits, although I find that one bit works best on my Eb sousaphone (Conn 28K). Some goosenecks do not have a receiver into which a mouthpeice will fit without a bit.

Normal design (on the sousas I have played and seen) is to use two adjustable tuning bits between the gooseneck and mouthpiece. The gooseneck swivels and is clamped against rotation within a leadpipe that is rigidly connected to a knuckle on the first valve body.

One or both tuning bits could be removed by a player, but the tuning slide would have to be adjusted outward to keep the instrument in tune. Adding a third tuning bit would make the horn play flatly, uncorrectably so, because factory tuning slides on sousas do not normally permit much inward adjustment.

However, some antique and near-antique sousas and helicons were designed to play in "high pitch" or "low pitch." If you have one of those vintage instruments (that has not been modified), then adding or removing tuning bits could adjust the horn to a modern tuning of A=440.

The same variances could result if a sousa or helicon had been repaired with a replacement gooseneck or leadpipe of the wrong length.

Well, so much for my two bits' worth!

jmh3412 wrote:are the tuning bits optional??

Only if tuning is optional...