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Most sousas are intended to be played with two bits. If you are using Conn bits, you can use just one but it's not likely that will bring you from an A to a Bb. What brand horns are you using? Have you checked them for leaks? Bad waterkey corks?

This summer I repaired a Conn 14K that was "playing too flat". There was a gym sock in it. Besides checking for leaks, make sure nothing is stuck in it. Matt

The "music stuck in the bell" trick gets you every time.

You know, I used to play on a fiberglass sousaphone some number of years ago, middle school actually, and that darn thing had a metal screen in the bell to keep things from going down inside of it. Haha.

Those were the days.

andrada wrote:A couple of petrified apple cores, a few small stones, and a full box of Tampax.

Hahahaha. Even sousaphones have "bad" weeks. (Not the players, just the horn.)

Since another poster mentioned hosing debris out of a sousaphone, thought I'd mention a fellow community band player whose sousa wasn't playing right.

The repairman found a piece of hose (!) and a pop can stuck in the horn.

andrada wrote:When I graduated, I asked the music director when he wanted me to bring the horn back and he said not to bother anytime soon, he knew where it was if he needed it. I wound up keeping it around for at least another 10 years and using it in a bunch of local bands...When the BD passed away I took the horn back to the new guy. Really was a pretty nice horn - almost wish I had kept quiet.

Mine is a very similar story. My high school band had long ago abandoned its sousaphones in favor of the new convertible tubas that were all the rage in the 1970s. The BD let me take one of the sousaphones home during the summer before my senior HS year to teach myself tuba. The horn remained in my possession in my freshman year of college when I was a pre-med major. I used it for the college's basketball pep band.

When I transferred to a different college to become a music major, I returned the sousaphone to my alma mater. The BD had totally forgotten about it! And little did I realize the value of what I had--a fine playing silver Conn 20K.

the kings at our school require 2 bits, the yamahas require 1 or 2 depending on the player