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On this site i've seen alot of posts. but i havent seen very many about sousaphones. I kinda think they get forgetten when it's not marching season. I love the one i play. I play a conn 20k silver sousaphone. my school bought it used the year before i started marching. I trained on a conn fiberglass, but to this day i hate it. the intoneation is horrible. but, yeah, the Conn sousaphone that i play is one of my favorite horns. i play it all the time. I wanted to see what other people thought about sousaphones.

andrew the tuba player wrote:On this site i've seen alot of posts. but i havent seen very many about sousaphones. I kinda think they get forgetten when it's not marching season. I love the one i play. I play a conn 20k silver sousaphone. my school bought it used the year before i started marching. I trained on a conn fiberglass, but to this day i hate it. the intoneation is horrible. but, yeah, the Conn sousaphone that i play is one of my favorite horns. i play it all the time. I wanted to see what other people thought about sousaphones.

Sousaphones actually get discussed quite a lot--I'm surprised you missed it.

But what is there to say? If there's some particular aspect of sousaphones that you want to discuss, then go for it.

Rick "who owns a nice-playing 14K but who doesn't play it all the time" Denney

no, i just wanna know what other people think. Am crazy for thinking that its my favorite horn even if i own a miafone 186 5uc??

Not everyone knows this but Bill Bell used to like to do his recording sessions and solo work on an Eb Sousaphone. Hepreferred it to his Tubas. However, it was not very de-riguer....

andrew the tuba player wrote:no, i just wanna know what other people think. Am crazy for thinking that its my favorite horn even if i own a miafone 186 5uc??

It depends on your requirements. I really like my 14K, but there aren't many situations where I would prefer it to my Miraphone.

For one thing, I hate holding the damn things up. My shoulder is not correctly shaped to make it comfortable. The forward bell limits its usefulness, too. But I wish I had owned it for some outdoor gigs I've done over the last few years.

Rick "who has only occasional need for a sousaphone" Denney

andrew the tuba player wrote:On this site i've seen alot of posts. but i havent seen very many about sousaphones. I kinda think they get forgetten when it's not marching season. I love the one i play. I play a conn 20k silver sousaphone. my school bought it used the year before i started marching. I trained on a conn fiberglass, but to this day i hate it. the intoneation is horrible. but, yeah, the Conn sousaphone that i play is one of my favorite horns. i play it all the time. I wanted to see what other people thought about sousaphones.

at my high school freshman year we played Conn fiberglass sousas in concert band.

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tubatom91 wrote:at my high school freshman year we played Conn fiberglass sousas in concert band.

I played a plastic King from 7th through 12th grades, except for the concert season of my final year in high school. During those four months, I played a Miraphone my band director borrowed from Rice University. It sure was more fun than the plastic King.

But I also went to solo contest every year with that King, and made it work. The experience did not fill me with the desire to play sousaphone exclusively, however.

Rick "who prefers something smaller than a 20K" Denney

Smaller?? Man, i remember,...we went To Berryville Arkanasas and they're known for haveing a great band. They had 3 silver kings that we're alot smaller than my conn 20K. afterwards i had a fan circle. The hole band was amazed at how i over powered they're 3 sousas and still sounded good. the band director wanted to trade flutes for me lol. but yeah i dont think i coulda done that on a smaller horn and still sounded good.
it's not fierglass horns in general. The one at our school is...old. like... there's a crack in the bend right before the bell. And, it wont stay in tune. The valve caps wont think about turning and one of the bell screws has broken of so the bell trys to fall off everytime you move. one time last year, my 20K had to go to the shop because of of the braces broke ( ) and i had to practise with it. i hated it so much that i went and got the Conn 20J 6/4 concert with the recording bell and marched with it instead. But, before the gamethe good ole' 20K was back in action ( )
I dunno why, but i just love to play the thing. i have it hanging in my room over my bed so that anytime i wanna play it's right there. I love the tone and the intoneations unbeatable. And I think It's more expressive (even if you leae out the danceing )I like playing 'The Beatles' Songs on it. Like Lucy in the sy with diamonds or...octopuse's garden or I am the walrus...Yeah...I like the beatles and the Sousaphone just...adds to it

I am unashamed and unabashed. I have played many souzys: King metal and fiberglass, Conn metal and fiberglass, Olds, Buescher, Conn Cavalier, others long forgotten and forgetable, including Yammy & Jupiter (don't get me started).

I LOVE to play a souzy, especially outdoor concerts. Bloke is right -- nothing can beat a fine souzy. Not only for conventional concert and marching bands, but, of course, de rigeur for Dixieland.

I would like to play a Martin Mammoth someday, as well as (yeah, right -- dream on) the original Pepper souzy, just to get the experience.

A good souzy has good to great false pedals, so there is no need for a 4th valve. All it does is add weight. Instead, especially on Conns, take the top loop of the 1st valve tubing and convert it to a slide. I have done this both to a Conn Cavalier and another. When I tried the mod for my friend who is a retired Navy tuba player, I went down the scale, and when I hit F 1-3 and pulled, he reflexively exclaimed, "Nice low F!"

Everyone must own a souzy. But I am very opinionated. Because everyone wants light weight and low price, all modern souzys are trash. The only good souzys are pre-Macmillian Conns or pre-cyborg Kings.

Such nice rarities as the Martin Mammoth and a few others are also great, but I'm talking about for every day use.

GO BUY A SOUSAPHONE!

Yeahm i love my silver 20K. t's just fun. The 3 kings i was telling you about..they were silver, but they looked like they were made to be light weight and the medal looked thin. although a souzys a souzy. acutally one of there's...died . What happended is we were at a marching contest. one of the other schools asked if they could borrow one of there 3 sousaphones because there fiberglass one had gotten dropped of the stands . afterwars they took iy back. everything was on the trailor and everyone was on the bus. the bus driver back up and they heard a crunch...they backed over there beautiful like new King sousaphone with a school bus. but yeah. i hate chep imatations...and as far as holding it goes, i've played it for like...4 hours straight and not had any problems

andrew the tuba player wrote:The hole band was amazed at how i over powered they're 3 sousas and still sounded good.

I'm having trouble finding a valid reason to put "sounded good" and "overpower" in the same sentence. I don't look at tuba playing as a sport, where the objective is to play louder than the next guy. In fact, I'm usually the guy in the section holding back to try and balance others.

The 20K is a 6/4 sousaphone. Like all 6/4 Conns, it has a terribly flat third partial, and other intonation quirks that I find difficult to manage. Part of the problem is the pain I'm feeling trying to hold the stupid thing up. My trapezius is not shaped like a tray, and a sousaphone ends up sitting right on my shoulder bone, which is quite painful.

A Conn 14K, on the other hand, produces a beautiful tone (among sousaphones) and is lighter even than many fiberglass sousaphones. I don't find it any easier to overblow than my Holton, if I'm putting a good signal into it. It also plays in tune without gymnastics. Sorta like a Miraphone.

Rick "who bought the sousaphone to learn Dixieland and other genres where the sousaphone has the right sound" Denney

i dont consider it a sport either. They were just talking about how I played louder than all three of theres as in, they didnt put enough air in the hirn. I wasnt trying to out play them, i was trying to give our band the support it needs. The last tuba player we had didnt really care what he was doing so you could never hear it. Now you can. Plus, i dont have a section. I am (or was..the new guy joined during concert) the only tuba player in our band, so i had to hold it up by my self. It wasnt a compitition...o the field...now in the stands...thats a different story. all you can hear in brass mainly low. We had a trombone to baritones and me a the sousa and We out played everyone else cause we play...we do have three or so trumpets that really come out.but...for the most part it's the low section that you can hear.
Hmm...I've never player a 14K. The only sousas I've played would be the old fiberglass and the 20K. I reallly like it and I've had alot of people comment it.

Oh the days of high school marching band. I was the only sousaphone in my high school marching band too. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you look at it), my band was small, around 50 people, no counting color guard, so I didn't have to blow my brains out.

But I did, and in any recordings of the band, all you can hear is me and a trumpet player. It was fun, but I would have given anything to have played in an outstanding band.

It's kinda like how things are going in a municipal band I play with. The guy the chair below me can blow the band away, and doesn't hesitate to. I mentioned it to him last weak that I felt he was over-playing, getting a blatty sound, and wasn't really matching the section. He felt like the section wasn't playing strong enough. I don't completely disagree with him, I'm willing to play out more, but he takes it to the extreme (anything marked over forte will be blatted, anything with an accent will be blatted).

So he kinda felt like you (and I did) in high school marching band. "I've got to hold the section and the band together by playing loud!" In the past few years, I've been focusing more on making music in the band than making the band fear me. I think it's more rewarding (and sometimes less painful) to go at it that way. It's not often that tubas are in fact carrying the melody anyways. I'd rather be felt, be a prescence in the band, than be heard and ruin the music.

Andrew, can I make a slight request? Could you spend an extra minute on your posts for grammar/punctuation/capitalization? I don't mean to be an English teacher, but it makes your post 3z13r 2 reed 1f w3 d0n't hafta dacyfer them. Get my gist? You aren't that bad, I exaggerated cuz it's fun.

Colby "expects to see some morse code showing up soon..." Fahrenbacher

Yeah, i know what you mean. The thing is that its hard to get that bad and when you do the band director shoot death glares at you. i dont blow my brains out i just...put the amout of air that is needed whne the other people dont. I play in a 40- 50 peice band and I love being the only tuba. it leaves room to make the part your own (adding pedals and little things to dress it up).
yeh,il tri 2 du bettr on the hol grmer thing.soree just in a huree lol

Rick Denney wrote: The 20K is a 6/4 sousaphone. Like all 6/4 Conns, it has a terribly flat third partial, and other intonation quirks that I find difficult to manage. Part of the problem is the pain I'm feeling trying to hold the stupid thing up. My trapezius is not shaped like a tray, and a sousaphone ends up sitting right on my shoulder bone, which is quite painful.

Isn't my 40K in the same size class as the 20K? I haven't seen this problem with the 3rd partial on the tuner, and it's not me - I do have another tuba with an obvious (ultra-terrible?) out of tune 3rd partial, but it is not this one.

Luckily, I have negligible muscles, so the shape of my trapezius is not much of an issue. It has been a while, but as I remember it, even at 33 lbs, the 40K's shoulder plate rides pretty well for a march of a mile or two. The 20K I have been seeing lately has no such plate and the tubing rests directly on the shoulder. I doubt anyone's shoulder is shaped right for that.

I think that sousaphones have been discussed on here fairly often. I will add that I am also an unabashed fan of my sousa's. I have a pair of 1958 Reynolds Contempora brass sousaphones that are nothing short of great horns. They sound great, have a big sound when you want one, but can be played pp easily when you need to with just that great bottom note foundation. I usually use them for outdoor gigs, and at that, usually for parades or floats but I look forward to them each time I pick them up.

One kind of long story, but if you care to indulge me, here goes:
Every year for the 4th, I decorate the bell of my sousaphone with a ring of american flags. It is kind of clich'e, but being in a parade is kind of what the venue calls for. In any event, I have always had positive reactions to them, and it's fun so I kept doing it. Well about 3 or 4 years ago, I was at a parade on the 4th that was one that had an ice cream social afterwards. I had already done two parades that morning, and I look forward to this one as I was just a spectator. I was there with my bride and 3 kids and we had a great time. Afterwards, we sat at a table with our ice cream when an older couple sat down at the table across from us. We struck up a conversation and found that they were from out of town but were here for the 4th to visit their family etc. They said that they had enjoyed the parade we were at, but then they mentioned the civic veterans parade 3 days earlier. (Our city holds their civic parade on the Sunday prior to the 4th) The lady imediately offered a question, "Do you know what the best part of that parade was?" Well, with 5 divisions, and dozens of bands and floats, who could say? (it's a big parade) So I said, "Ok, I'll bite,what?" Well, she says, "There was a truck that went by that had a band on the back, and at the back of the band there was a guy with a tuba that had American flags around the bell of his horn". I just about fell over. Here we were at another venue, miles away from the other one, and 3 days later and I am sitting across from this couple who are from out of town anyway and of all the things that she liked about the two hour parade, my dumb flags were the thing she liked most. I figure with that kind of sign, the flags will stay!

Steve

thats cool. We decorate my bell for christmas. We use garland and lights and chrismasy things. I remember last year, our french horn player gave me some garland to swap for some lights. I took it and wrapped it all around my horn, and still had some so i just let it dangle behind me. soon people in the band room started commenting on my 'tail'. i started to take it off but my girl friend wouldnt let me. she threatened to take my mouth piece...(percussionists are so evil lol). so, i left it. That was so much fun, people dont get the fun in danceing with a sousaphone. see, a little while later i was messing with a couple of my buddies playing 'the good ole' fashion tuba part' (oompaa, oompaa) and we all 4 of us were danceing and jumping and my girl friend walked in and just stood there and watched untill we almost did a domino affect because my buddie got to close and i hit him. lol. any way, back on subject...all through the parade little kids thought i was a reindeer so they made me wear antlers. Then at the end i tore it all of only to find out that they had pulled it off there Christmas Tree and needed it back ...she hasnt loaned me anything since lol.

Yes, indeed. Reynolds are also good souzys. Before starting his own company, then selling out, retiring, and coming back to revive the company name with Olds, he started out working for York and was lured away by H. N. White. That's why some of the King instruments, like the Master Model cornet, look so much like some of the Reynolds instruments, like the Contempora. The souzys are the same way. They don't exactly swap out parts the same, but in almost all respects, including bore and general layout, the Reynolds is the same as the King. Like the Martins, you just don't see as many of them anymore.

Regarding partials and tuning: the only problems I have ever had are the usual slightly flat 5th partials C, Db & D. I've never played a souzy that has any problem with open F.

And I am SO glad it has the shoulder flange! I resemble the remark that a regular 20k without a flange indeed is NOT good on a shoulder!

Oh, BTW -- I edited one word in the song lyrics above: changed "sheet" to "beat."

andrew the tuba player wrote: it leaves room to make the part your own (adding pedals and little things to dress it up).

One of the things about being on the field...If you are playing a pedal tone, and nobody is playing the written octave, then your note will not go anywhere. Playing within the normal range will cut through a lot more.