Custom work
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eupher61
- 6 valves
- Posts: 2790
- Joined: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:37 pm
Re: Custom work
if you have the $$, almost anyone.
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imperialbari
- 6 valves
- Posts: 7461
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 3:47 am
Re: Custom work
You probably had a better selection of new-out-of-the-box sousaphones around 1935 than you have today.
Unless you want a 4 or 5 valve sousaphone in CC or F, your best option would be a well-restored old instrument.
It may be very old technology, but it still takes specialised heavy machinery to make the large bows, the knees, and the bell from scratch. If the sousaphone market would guarantee a satisfying return on the investment, the selection of relevant models would be larger.
There are several custom makers of French horns in the US. If you look at their operations, you will find, that several of them buy their bells and their valve sections in Germany. Sousaphones hardly can be made that way. I am not American, and I haven’t tested all available models of sousaphones. Yet I haven’t heard convincing evidence that any non-American maker has come up with anything better than the traditionally preferred American models.
As for CC circlophones there are reports about some King samples in existence. Maybe also a few by Conn, but they were built in CC, not cut. The only cut CC of TubeNet fame is a helicon based on a sousaphone. That cut only was possible because of the original sousaphone having an old-style wrap with a very long combined leadpipe/main tuning slide BEFORE the valve cluster. And because the sousaphone bell could be replaced with a tuba bell of a size not letting it protrude much from the main circle after its stack was cut to fit the ferrule, where the body knee sat originally. This helicon hardly had come to exist, if its re-maker hadn’t made it for his own playing.
Klaus
Unless you want a 4 or 5 valve sousaphone in CC or F, your best option would be a well-restored old instrument.
It may be very old technology, but it still takes specialised heavy machinery to make the large bows, the knees, and the bell from scratch. If the sousaphone market would guarantee a satisfying return on the investment, the selection of relevant models would be larger.
There are several custom makers of French horns in the US. If you look at their operations, you will find, that several of them buy their bells and their valve sections in Germany. Sousaphones hardly can be made that way. I am not American, and I haven’t tested all available models of sousaphones. Yet I haven’t heard convincing evidence that any non-American maker has come up with anything better than the traditionally preferred American models.
As for CC circlophones there are reports about some King samples in existence. Maybe also a few by Conn, but they were built in CC, not cut. The only cut CC of TubeNet fame is a helicon based on a sousaphone. That cut only was possible because of the original sousaphone having an old-style wrap with a very long combined leadpipe/main tuning slide BEFORE the valve cluster. And because the sousaphone bell could be replaced with a tuba bell of a size not letting it protrude much from the main circle after its stack was cut to fit the ferrule, where the body knee sat originally. This helicon hardly had come to exist, if its re-maker hadn’t made it for his own playing.
Klaus
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The Big Ben
- 6 valves
- Posts: 3169
- Joined: Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:54 am
- Location: Port Townsend, WA
Re: Custom work
And I shudder to think of what a copy of such a horn would cost if you could convince Joe to make another one. $15K+???? Wouldn't surprise me.imperialbari wrote:
This helicon hardly had come to exist, if its re-maker hadn’t made it for his own playing.
To the OP: What features are you looking for that can't be achieved with an "Out of the box" horn? If you want a spangley thing that was shown here last month, most of that could be done by a car painter. The 4v conversion would have to be made by a specialist but other than that...
The cumulative knowledge of the TNFJ might be able to find you what you want if you would say what that was.