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Just curious out there if anyone knows of an instrument manufacturer that makes sousaphones for left handed people. I've seen pictures of these before where the bell is above the person's right shoulder. I'm a righty, but it'd be great for there to be something for the southpaws out there.

Hank74

Yeah, and right handed french horns, too .

The pictures you've seen were just reversed -- either the negative was upside down when it was printed, or someone just reversed the image digitally. There are no left-handed sousas.

I HAVE seen a picture of a genuine lefty concert tuba, built for a player who was disabled (paralysis or amputation on the right -- don't remember which). Some concert tubas could be rewrapped to "go the other way" with only a few pieces significantly modified, but the labor charge to disassemble and reassemble would be large.

Besides, if right-handed fiddlers and guitarists can do what they do with their left hands, and woodwind players and pianists can do what they do with both hands, surely most lefty tubists can manage with their "wrong" hand.
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Joe Baker, who has 5 thumbs on each hand.

I'm left handed. I write lefty, throw lefty, bat lefty, bowl lefty (bowling, not cricket for those of you from the UK), and drive lefty (should I decide to have just 1 hand on the wheel). I play tuba with my right hand. That's how I learned, that's how I play. It ain't a big deal.

Yeah, and right handed french horns, too .

Yeah, but they're called mellophones

I'm not aware of any left-handed sousaphones. That may mean that you'll have to enlist the help of a good brass technician to take a conventional sousaphone to pieces, and reassemble it, making appropriate changes the area around the valve section in particular.

You'll want to have not only a sousaphone, but plenty of silver with which to cross said repairman's palm...

...or you can take up the horn.

Chuck(G) wrote:...take a conventional sousaphone to pieces, and reassemble it,...

And then it wouldn't fit in the case, and would look "bad" on the field...

Actually, if one REALLY wanted a lefty sousaphone, it would probably be cheaper to come up with some sort of linkage to operate the valves so that the horn is still carried on the left shoulder, but with buttons extending to somewhere near where the left hand might grasp the outer tubing. Perhaps using cables in a housing of some sort, like the brake cables on a bike? Or hydraulics!! That'd be cool!! Or a battery, 3 pushbutton switches and 3 solenoids....
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Joe Baker, who loves thinking of silly stuff like this

Joe Baker wrote:

Chuck(G) wrote:...take a conventional sousaphone to pieces, and reassemble it,...

And then it wouldn't fit in the case, and would look "bad" on the field...

Actually, if one REALLY wanted a lefty sousaphone, it would probably be cheaper to come up with some sort of linkage to operate the valves so that the horn is still carried on the left shoulder, but with buttons extending to somewhere near where the left hand might grasp the outer tubing. Perhaps using cables in a housing of some sort, like the brake cables on a bike? Or hydraulics!! That'd be cool!! Or a battery, 3 pushbutton switches and 3 solenoids....
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Joe Baker, who loves thinking of silly stuff like this

Like mavic "zap" shifting. That'd be a hoot.

There are rotary sousas and helicons that would be a lot easier to convert to left hand via linkages.

Here's your sinister sousa, a blast from the past:

I met a guy this summer who had to use a left handed horn; his right arm ended just below the elbow. His concert horn was a rotary horn with the valves flipped around, everything else was left the same (pardon the pun). He also had a sousaphone, he just wrapped his left arm underneath it and played the valves as they were. I forgot to check for the thumb ring though. Oops.

windshieldbug wrote:

Yeah, and right handed french horns, too .

Yeah, but they're called mellophones

Miraphone and others actually do make (or made) lefty "French" horns.

J.c.S.

European armies used to have bands based on drafted players. At least in Germany and in Italy right-handed horns were supplied for trumpet amateur players for an easier adaptation.

In Germany these army horns mostly were in Bb and had rotors. As prominent a player as Hermann Baumann was started on such horn. I don't know details about Italian army horns but for owning one, which is doubly rare, as it is a piston horn in F.

The bug usually is quite well informed, but we all have to learn new matters from time to time. Actually my Saporetti & Capelli horn was offered for sale as an alto horn just because of the right hand valves. The seller was a MAKER and player of Vienna horns, so he should have known better. But then I profited from the low opening bid and the lack of competing bidders.

One player in the US specializes in collecting right-handed horns. He was not happy with not being the owner, when I told of this horn on the horn lists. But he is a good sport and asked me to provide photos for his book on the topic. The seller was stubborn and maintained that the horn is an alto horn. Hardly a boost for his credibility within the horn community.

Sharp eyes may note that the book used for a reference of a non-mirrored photo is Norwegian. The photographer was my late friend and neighbour Eigil, who had spent half of his adult life in Norway.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

OK, I'll bite: is the Monopoly game in the center just to show the picture isn't reversed, or is there something "other worldly" or "of the force" that we need to know about the LH souzy?

Great pic!

BTW: I'm left handed also, and I write and generally do things that require one hand left handed (although I use right-handed scissors, but that is arguably a two-handed skill as you usually have to hold what you are cutting with the scissors), but as far as playing musical instruments, golf, and other things that generally require two hands, I do them right handed. As posted above, it's the way I was taught, and it's no big deal.

Maybe i should have my 40K and 20J flipped to left handed models!