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I bought a nicely refurbished BBb Conn 20J from Mike Keehne in Evansville IN. Lovely instrument and much admired by the senior members of the community band.

It is a big instrument. Mike thouhgt it might be a 5/4--Can anybody give me some guidance. I've been playing an Asian made 3/4 and the step up has been challenging.

The serial number is E65809--If anybody has any history on this fine old beast please share it.
Deke
dkblagdon@gmail.com" target="_blank

I'm afraid I can't give you much history about that horn other than I bought it off Ebay in December of 2009. I did a little dentwork on it and had planned to keep it for myself. I also had a brass one which I sold to Mike. A few months later... Mike decided he wanted the silver one and traded the brass one in on it.

As I said... I bought the horn at auction. But... it may have come out of a school because it also came with a 'Tuba-Tamer'.

As with many used horns.... a written history is something we just don't often get with them.

Wish I had more to report. Enjoy the horn and make modern history with it!

Oh.... by-the-way... here's an outfit that likes 'em: http://20j.marchingsoutherners.org/home.htm

One person whose opinion I respect a lot, says the 20J is a 6/4. Certainly it's a lot of tuba.

If your band does any open-air performances, without any acoustical shell, the 20J will ensure that the audience can hear at least one tuba. That, and the fact that I really like this model, is why I got mine.

5/4 or 6/4 is really not an objective modifier. Call it big and great sounding, and you have a better descriptor.

Playing this should be incentive to get into good, or even better, physical shape. Simply hauling the thing is a workout, but
the better your condition the easier it will be to play it to its full capability.

Years ago, when I bought my beloved 20J, I posted something on this forum indicating that I was now a member of the BAT club. Someone responded that I was actually a member of the HAT club.

It's not a 6/4, it's a HAT!

(P.S. My daughter wants to march with it next year if her band director allows her to. I need to see where to put the strap attachments if that all comes about.)

Might be a good idea to get a three-piece strap- two of the pieces are secured around the tuba's bows and the third clips to them. This way you are not depending on rather small soldered joints to hold the tuba up.

I bought such a strap at Baltimore Brass for my Sonora- it's made by American Music Products. For some reason it's not on the BB website, but you can see it here: http://americanmusicproducts.com/products.html" target="_blank

saktoons wrote:..... My daughter wants to march with it next year if her band director allows her to. I need to see where to put the strap attachments if that all comes about.)

Check out the rigs used by the Marching Southerners. I think they utilize a custom harness that even allows them to spin their 20J's.

This one looks promising: http://neotechstraps.com/tuba-harness.html" target="_blank (No spinning of the horn!)

saktoons wrote:(P.S. My daughter wants to march with it next year if her band director allows her to. I need to see where to put the strap attachments if that all comes about.)

Sexism isn't PC, so I will refer to statistics telling that women on average are less tall and less weighty than men.

I don’t think the Conn 2XJ series ever was intended for marching. Conn marketed the top valved versions as having easy shifts with string bass for doublers. The problem with marching those beasts is not alone weight, but the shift of the player's center of gravity when the tuba is in playing position. The taller and heavier the player is, the less that shift affects the player's balance.

The horror sample still in visual memory was from a TV transmission of the Edinburgh military tattoo back from the days when the British army still had a WAC/WAR band. A very short player marched one of the 3+1P BBb compensating tubas. Alone to allow the for her long strides, she had to carry it almost horizontally. The looks of her ergonomic struggles were not pretty. And they hardly promoted her aging without a too worn-out body.

So unless your daughter is, what we call a big machine, let her march a metal sousaphone, if she wants to double as a weight lifter and a musician.

Klaus