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Hey fellow tubenetters. Today i was given an olds sousaphone that i found in our scools storage room. Its fiberglass. I got it because the band director declared it "non repairable". It has a few problems. 1. the bell has a crack in it and 2. the brass has a tear. but. i plan to fix those soon so i can play it. does anyone know the model with the serial number '512575' stamped on the second valve. It may just be me, but it looks and feels big. (its bigger than our conn fiberglass sousie for sure.) but, yeah, Just wanted to tell you. This is my first sousaphone

I played an old Buescher sousaphone like that for most of my time in high school marching band thirty some years ago. This tuba was missing a couple of valve caps. To take their place, some sheet metal, wire and springs were used to make a replacement. It also had a tear in the bell... some metalic gold colored strapping tape was used to cover that up, which, surprisingly, didn't show. I have no idea what happened to this horn. We parted ways in 1974. I think we figured that this sousaphone was sold to my high school in 1921, about the time the band room was built.

Several Olds brass Sousaphones from Oaklahoma just sold on e-bay recently that needed valves and other misc. It's too bad that you couldn't have scored one of those as I would imagine that the parts would be interchangeable. The Olds design followed Reynolds after they joined and the Reynolds are fine sousaphones. Perhaps you could do a search and work out a deal with one of them. http://cgi.ebay.com/SOUSAPHONE-TUBA-240 ... dZViewItem

LoyalTubist wrote:I think we figured that this sousaphone was sold to my high school in 1921, about the time the band room was built.

Vintage, I presume.

andrew the tuba player wrote:Hey fellow tubenetters. Today i was given an olds sousaphone that i found in our scools storage room. Its fiberglass. I got it because the band director declared it "non repairable". It has a few problems. 1. the bell has a crack in it and 2. the brass has a tear. but. i plan to fix those soon so i can play it. does anyone know the model with the serial number '512575' stamped on the second valve. It may just be me, but it looks and feels big. (its bigger than our conn fiberglass sousie for sure.) but, yeah, Just wanted to tell you. This is my first sousaphone

Enjoy! There was a thread about fiberglass repair a few months ago you should search for and read. If the instructions are followed, fiberglass is fairly easily repaired and it can be done so the repairs are not noticeable.

If your school has a jewelery making or metal shop class, get with the instructor to give you some hints on fixing the brass tear. That, too, can be fixed so it looks good.

Have fun!

Jeff "Marching? Not for me!" Benedict

Thanks for all the responce. I have an old valve section that i can use to repair the torn one. And, my Dad knows how to repair fiberglass, so, I should be in pretty good shape. I maily just want it to have fun at home. I have a good silver sousie at school so...