Need Sousa Shoulder Pad

[Tim Jackson]

RE: Newer King 2340 Satin Silver Sousaphones

I am teaching part time this year and have some general questions about sousaphones.
What is a good choice/brand for a shoulder pad for sousaphones? The kids look like they are in pain!
What is a good cleaning procedure for King silver satin sousa finish?
I always thought king made a great playing sousas... I guess that was the old ones! These look new... they are stuffy.

Seems hard to get a big open sound... but they sure look nice. ha ha!

Thanks for any help you can give,
Tim Jackson

[Bandmaster]

Okay...

1) I have never like shoulder pads, they just make it worse. If you let the sousaphone sit on the soft tissue between your neck and shoulder the tendon will get used to holding the weight and stop hurting. A pad just spreads the weight out so it pushes on the bone, which never gets used to the weight.

2) Wright's Silver Crème and elbow grease. Any good silver polish will do, but there is no substitute for the elbow grease.

3) Check for leaky spit valve corks or improper felts on the valves under the valve caps. Maybe they installed the wrong felts and the valves are out of alignment. Also, the valve stems might be the wrong length. The 1st and 3rd valves could be switched, they are very similar looking, but not exactly the same and could through off the alignment too. The number should be stamped on the top of valve, probably under the felts. Any number of simple things to fix could make them play stuffy.

[VinnyFromBrooklyn]

I have been playing tuba for about a year now and i am the low brass section leader for my marching band and my first experience was with a contra. I admit the weight of the horn is very heavy and in my case has caused busing on my right shoulder and trust me it hurts a lot even with a little 13 pound contra
Now this year we just got silver finish Dillions sousaphone personally i love them but that bruising/pain is coming back and i promise you it will slow down and eventually stop over the season personally i would tell your students exactly what my teacher told me my first year take a sweatshirt(Please do not get pads they are a waste of money unless they are brand new horns) and put it where your horn has the main weight on your body BUT this will take longer to get over that pain and you can not march competitions with a sweatshirt on your shoulder.

Personally i never had to clean a satin finished horn so i can not help

now with stuffy noise you speak of be sure you check the for leaky spit valves and the felts on the valves under the valve caps(this can easily be fixed within 10-20 minutes or a very quick visit to your music store). i have have noticed the same thing with my horn (and this is what i expect to be the problem) and i will give you the biggest hint i can give a person about sousaphone air air and more air you know that blatty noise that if you make it on concert horn you get yelled at for? that is how much air you should be putting through the sousaphone stand tunes they should be playing as loud as possible be sure they do A LOT of breathing exercise and if you do not do breathing in your warm ups(Not just sousaphones all instruments) they do wonders for a band!
good luck!

[Paul Scott]

I recommend the Neotech sousa shoulder pad.

[NCSUSousa]

Add one more vote for - skip the pads. Regardless of the type of instrument it doesn't end up helping anything.
The pad just makes it worse because it puts pressure on the collarbone.
It also takes longer for the top shoulder muscle to get used to carrying the load with some of the load spread to the collarbone.
8 marching seasons of sousaphone carrying with multiple pads tried because of prior injuries to my left shoulder. I also carried multiple types of sousaphone and marching tuba.

If it's the 1st week of band camp, then yes they are in pain. They're building muscles the right way. Encourage them to carry their sousas as long as possible (in the band room and on the field) with good posture to build up their shoulder muscles. Also, make sure they've got their neck and bits installed correctly so that the sousaphone bell connector is above their left shoulder and the valveset is next to their right hip. If they carry it wrong, it puts even more pressure on the left collarbone and shoulder blade bones.

For the satin silver, we used spray polish on our Conn 20Ks at NCSU. Remember that polish should only be used to remove tarnish. Everyday cleaning should be with a wet (no chemicals) rag then dry with another soft rag. Don't let them use paper towels on any bright parts - that leads to scratches. Don't put the horn back in the case wet (sweaty is worse than wet).

[bisontuba]

I recommend the Neotech sousa shoulder pad.

+1...

Mark

[Donn]

Now I'm wondering if there might be a market for a pad that tries to work like the shoulder plate on my old Conn sousaphone. A bit heavier than your Kings (which I assume are the 2350 model), it's well over 30 lbs, and reasonably comfortable on my skinny frame - thanks to the plate, which spreads the weight out a couple inches.

Simply padding the tube doesn't really do that so well. In my experience, anyway, padding I installed on my previous sousaphone didn't work very well for me. But a better, more weight-distributing pad might be as simple as attaching a pair of padding ribs to a strip of leather or something, such that the tube is cradled between them. No big spongy cushion, and not a big wide platform, probably no wider than the tube itself, just flattening out the load a little right there.

[mjrctuba]

Did you see this thread?

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=56310&p=478929&hili ... ad#p478929" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank


As for me, I go padless.

[tofu]

I've never found the shoulder pads to be helpful. The bottom pads are handy especially out on the street. Eliminates resting horn on foot.

For cleaning I would really recommend what Bloke posted on here awhile back. A combination of Wright's silver paste/ dawn dishwashing liquid /and a real natural sponge. Mix the paste/dishwashing liquid / wet sponge and apply to horn. RInse and towel off. Fast / easy / works well. I use this for all my satin silver finish horns.

[burningchrome]

Wow, long posts. I too think the pads that go on the horn are worthless. However, I got a set of football knee pads the other day and tried one out for a parade. Worked like a champ and cost $6.

[bubba42200]

Hello,

I'm a high school band student right now, and I can tell you that I have not used a shoulder pad. I took a sousa home for the summer my first year and would sometimes just walk around with it. By band camp, it didn't hurt, and it hasn't since. I used a shoulder pad at band camp, and I took it off the first day; it increased the pain. I re-purposed the shoulder pad as a brace on the bottom of the horn so that when I set it on the pavement the bottom doesn't get scraped.

I recommend using Wright's silver creme, we use it and it works great.

As for the third option, I dunno. I've never had a good experience with a sousa...