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I figured out an easy (yet REALLY stupid) way to put your 14K Sousa into the key of CC.

I was assembling a 14K Sousaphone today and did not put the bell crook (the piece with the socket the bell goes into) on yet. Just for giggles, I played the Sousaphone on a tuner and it was dead on in CC.

So there you have it. A CC 14K Sousaphone...or really it would be more like a helicon.

Maybe a sousaph ("one" part is missing).

Norm -

Excellent joke! Without a bell I guess the horn would be more like a contra bass valve sackbut.

Play it without the bell it will be in B natural..
Play it without the the knee before the bell, it will be in CC.
Play it without the leadpipe it.......




...... won't play at all.

It's nearly impossible to cut a sousaphone into CC because it's difficult to cut a part out of a conical circle and still have it be a circle.

However, I did once have a 4 valve King original CC that played well .

BRSousa wrote:Norm -

Excellent joke! Without a bell I guess the horn would be more like a contra bass valve sackbut.

And of course the instrument has a shorter overall length, so the 2nd valve notes and first valve notes will be flat, 1-2 and 2-3 would be somewhat less flat, 1-3 might be pretty close to in tune, and 1-2-3 would probably still be sharp, but less so than usual.