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I was giving lessons to a student whose band director picked up some of these. This one had both bells, the brass and fiberglass/synthetic, IIRC, with a fiberglass/synthetic body. While I never saw what the cross-sections looked like, I do have to agree that these things are heavy, comparably, and the material didn't seem to have the same "feel" as fiberglass. It felt a little more brittle, for lack of a better term, when handled. I really didn't think much of it, as the horn seemed decent otherwise.

bloke wrote:' would be nice to receive one definitive answer from someone who *really* knows...but (yes, I know) this is TubeNet.

- Jupiter white sousaphones are heavier than others...' just about as heavy (it seems) as the comparable metal version.

- Jupiter white sousaphones (when severely hit) seem to break away in "chunks"...as if they are made of resin...I don't see any "fibers" in the chunks.

I'm just guessing that it's a thermoset material similar to the stuff called SMC (Sheet Molding Compound) that's used for Corvette body panels.... only without the double-skin with glass fibers in the center. Just the 'skin'. This stuff is pretty brittle without the filler.

Not a reply, but a related question from somebody having seen guesting foreign bands parade fiberglass sousaphones of the brands King and Yamaha (very visible from the decals), but never played anything but sousaphones fully made of brass:

Are bodies and bells out of the same material in the US fibre sousaphone brands? And yes, I am aware that all are out of brass well past the main tuning slide.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre