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I am just geeky enough to dream of making my own frankentuba one day, but until I have the skills, space, and money to pursue that, I'm considering paying someone else to make one. That said, is it realistic to make a frankensousa from the body of a regular 3v tuba? Or is the wrap totally wrong for that purpose? I know someone who took the tubing and I assume valve section of a Bb sousa and welded them to a lightweight Eb sousa body, and ended up with a solid 18.5 pound sousaphone... so it's a really enticing possibility to me! Anyone have experience with such a project?

I suspect many Eb Sousas use a Bb valve block with shorter loops already. Your idea isn’t impossible but I’ve seen some pretty awkward looking sousaphone and helicon builds using your approach.

Maybe I should be more specific: If there's a good valve block and main tubing section of a standard Conn student tuba, do you think that can be welded/brazed/soldered to a narrow-bore Eb sousa body? Obviously I'm thinking of some specific horns, though I don't necessarily know of a specific person who would do that...

The issue is hard-brazing different knuckles out of the valves to the valve slides so everything aligns property in three dimensions. Compare a King sousaphone to a King tuba, whether front or top valve, or both, and you will be able to see what I mean, since King used the same bore valve block for all three instruments.