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I get to regularly go through lots of old Sousaphones, so I often find things stuffed inside. What are some of the strange or notable things that you may have found in an old horn?

I have found:
- Pictures of an old house
- a FULL water bottle (hey, why isn't this liquid coming out of this horn!)
- wasp nests
- a small pillow
- a hood emblem for a Ford Fiesta
- parts "missing" from that horn

I will post more goofy stuff it rolls through the shop.

we found a rubber mouthpiece pouch where I work in a tuba...

Last year's drill charts.

Uh oh. You have no idea what you started. Good thing we don't have smell-o-vision yet.

Oh boy... Unfortunately I DO know what I have gotten myself into . At an away football game in college, we were at the #1 rival school playing in the stands. One of the people in the student section tossed a piece of pizza into my friends Souzie. If that isn't an argument for one of those screens I don't know what is...

Aside from the rats nests, dead birds, rubbers, and chewing gum... I found a Duran Duran cassette in one a couple of months ago.

There were like 4 cans of redbull in one of my old high schools sousas

TubaTinker wrote:Aside from the rats nests, dead birds, rubbers, and chewing gum... I found a Duran Duran cassette in one a couple of months ago.

Uggggghhhh.... Duran Duran

I remember when I was in high school, one of the sousaphone wouldn't play, totally stuffed up. We went crazy trying to figure out what was stuck in it. We tried coat hangers but could never grab anything. So I finally took it home and put it in the bath tub and filled it with water and just let it sit. Finally, the next day one of those red and white cardboard trombone mutes floated to the top. It took over a day for the mute to get saturated and mushy enough to break free. Needless to say, it wasn't much good as a mute after that...

I've found t-shirts, baked goods (brownies), and a geometry textbook, to name a few! No dead animals as of yet, but my fingers are crossed

A great friend of mine started his musical career playing sousaphone in the high school band. Later he switched to French horn so he could sit next to the pretty girl in that section.

The section leader taught him the fingerings - and he only new 7 of them. F was open, F# was open, Gb was 1&2, B natural was open - you get the picture.

He took his sousaphone home one weekend and his father recommended cleaning it out. After running the garden hose under pressure through the neck, out came a 16 pound shot put! Needless to say the horn played significantly better after that and it was a lot lighter! Eventually he learned that there were more fingerings and became pretty good at not having to lip notes a 1/2 step either way.

He's a great horn player now.

Roger

I think Roger wins. But, here's mine...

In Jr. High, I wanted a tuba to practice for the summer. All they had to give me was a sousaphone. Played horribly. Took it out in the backyard and blasted a garden hose through it. A pair of underpants came out. Jockey. Briefs.

3 mummified birds in an 1890's helicon, a plastic flower arrangement in 60's colors among the other usual items.

I have also found "antique" candy and a light up rubber ball. A friend of mine found a number 4 billiards ball once.

It`s not about an item found in my sousa, but items that used to find their way into the big bell
17th of May is the national celebration day in Norway, and firecrackers were very popular among younger people in the seventies.
A marching sousa in the parade was of course a tempting target for the fun-makers.
When you heard a KLANNGG in the bell you knew what`s comin`
Luckily the crackers were always small.
Firecrackers are now forbiden in Norway, but I do not think it was because of the sousa-targeting
Roger

Not really 'found' but 'jumped out'. I high school the section had a longer break and set our horns on the sideline. our practice lot was next to a large wooded area. when we came back to do a playing warm up one of the members noticed his horn doing funny things. right then a squirrel jumped out. a LIVE squirrel. you can imagine the surprised looks on all of our faces.

-CT

Beer can. Go figure.

Well its wasnt a Sousaphone but........
The other day I picked up my horn for my daily routine....... it seemed.... "stuffy" Not muted just not right.....
I played that way for about 45 min.....getting really frustrated with my sound....
Then I needed to empty some water.....turned my horn upside down,,,,,and out fell a stuffed animal... (the cow from Chic fil a) that my four year old son had deposited for good measure..... instant tone improvement!

I remember sitting at Custom Music when I bought my horn and the repair guy was working on a Sousaphone that had some issues. Basically it was stuffy...The repair guy used a blow torch and took the bow off only to find a tuner that was now completely melted to the bow. Sure smelled bad....

This is not an item found but more of a prank we pulled on one of our section mates in high school, but i think it is worth sharing so some one else can use it.

We had next door access to the town drinking water well. During a break during band camp, that player went to the bathroom, and we took his sousa to the well and filled it up with about 2-3 gallons of water. Of course he noticed the extra weight right away, and he let out his spit right in front of the band director. It didn't stop for a few minutes, the band director's face, along with the looks of disgust from some of the woodwinds was unforgettable.

We did the same thing to his tuba a few months later before a concert as well, with about a gallon of water. Fun times.