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I recently got a 1240 off of eBay, and it plays pretty well! Only downsides of the auction were that it didn’t come with a case or cases, and that the bell looks like some middle school kid tried to use it as a battering ram. Anyone selling either of these?

Ajazzz wrote:I recently got a 1240 off of eBay, and it plays pretty well! Only downsides of the auction were that it didn’t come with a case or cases, and that the bell looks like some middle school kid tried to use it as a battering ram. Anyone selling either of these?

I have had two King horns with King cases and my opinion is that, unless you will be regularly putting the horn in the lower compartment of a bus or will be entrusting it to the gorillas at the airport, cases are kind of annoying. Toting them around, both hands are full and opening doors is a drag and, while carrying the bell case, your leg with constantly encounter the bell bumps on the side of a case. If a community concert band or orchestra had roadies, the awkwardness wouldn't bother me but in those groups, you end up carrying the chairs, stands and the cookies for the bake sale during intermission yourself. You need room to open them up separately and then need to put the horn together and then do something with the bulky cases. It is really difficult to find a convenient place to put a bell case because they are shaped weird like a french horn case. It's pretty obvious why so many horn players are going to cut bells and either carrying them in a wheelie bag or in a case the size of an upright euphonium case.

I would recommend a gig bag, I had one for born of my horns and never had a problem with dents and damage. The large ProTec bag fits a 22" bell and the smaller one with fit the 19". One of my bags was actually one that was sold as a Mira 186 bag. I bought it used and it worked great on the King.

I do hae a pair of King cases for the 12XX and 23XX tubas. The body case is the jellybean shape and the bell case is the standard upright bell case. The body case has kind of worn cloth on the outside but both it and the body case are clean and fuzzy inside. If that is what you really want, send me a PM and I'll figure out a price. I have been keeping them in case I had to take my horn is a rough and tumble situation but probably could do without them,

Have the bell looked at before buying another one. A skilled operator of a rolling rod and a dent machine (who carefully anneals the metal and unfolds the big dents) can get it looking pretty good quickly and for less $$ than buying another one.

I appreciate the advice, I’ll have to look into a gig bag, as I’m not traveling with it too much. The bell issues are that it’s quite wrinkled (already had a friend give it its flare back from being somewhat flattened) and it has some small holes in the top, so it just made more sense to search for a new one, but I’ll have to see what the repair people say- I already need to take it in since the previous owner put the 1st valve slide in backwards and it got stuck...