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The last two days I've played loaner Sousaphones. They were both fairly new Yamaha white-plastic, 3V instruments (one in excellent condition - the other somewhat banged up and in need of attention to at least one valve. I saw another being loaned out with the 2nd valve completely missing a valve guide! The group loaning them to me had a box of parts, including about 5 pairs of brand new bits. They also had a rag-tag collection of older bits (mostly welded together in strange combinations).

In my opinion, the new bits were a tad too big. They inserted about a half inch, and worked loose easily. Yesterday, I used a random pair of older bits that worked just find. Today, I was forced to use the new bits. I managed to play OK - but every once in awhile I felt the connection to the gooseneck start to wobble a bit. No catastrophes - but some concern.

So...any clue as to what the new bits were - and what they SHOULD purchase to replace them?
My only other clue is that they were packed (pair by pair) in clear, unmarked plastic baggies.

KiltieTuba wrote:

So what you may have are some heavily mismatched pairs.

If so, they were mis-matched at the factory. They were brand-new, still in the packaging.

Certainly they were not matched to the gooseneck - but they were born paired at the factory.

sloan wrote:.... They were brand-new, still in the packaging.

Certainly they were not matched to the gooseneck - but they were born paired at the factory.

Of the common bits that are currently available.... the only ones that will interchange front to back are for a Conn 20/22K. The newer Conn sousas (except for the 20K) are actually Kings and require bits in sets that won't reverse.

Post a picture of what you have.

TubaTinker wrote:

sloan wrote:.... They were brand-new, still in the packaging.

Certainly they were not matched to the gooseneck - but they were born paired at the factory.

Of the common bits that are currently available.... the only ones that will interchange front to back are for a Conn 20/22K. The newer Conn sousas (except for the 20K) are actually Kings and require bits in sets that won't reverse.

Post a picture of what you have.

I'm now 1000 miles away from them.

Yamaha plastic 3V Sousaphone.

New (unlabelled) bits assembled in pairs, in original plastic baggie packaging.

The bits fit together just fine (in fact, they were "stuck" - I didn't try too hard to separate them).

The problem was that they only inserted 1/2" into the gooseneck, and worked loose during playing.

The question is: what kind of bits SHOULD they purchase (other than, perhaps, the obvious - "Yamaha bits").

The secondary question is: any guesses as to what they actually were? They looked very smooth, with a minimum of ornamentation. They were obviously brand new.