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Has anyone ever attempted putting old style King valves and slides (or other maker for that matter, although King seems to be the popular Franken-choice since they are good quality and there's tons of them around) on a Yamaha YBB-321/201 bugle?

Any obvious mismatch or shortcomings? I ask this in complete ignorance - I have no instrument building skills and would hire this out after acquiring the parts.. (However I did once hacksaw a UMI-era slide to make it removable/usable ).

TIA,
Eric L.

Dan Schultz(sp?) made a front action Yamaha Eb... You can look it up on his website.

Something like this?
http://galvanizedjazz.com/tuba/4sale/TubasForSale.html" target="_blank

The 321/201 are 0.730" bore horns. A valve set from a Conn with 0.734" bore would fit almost perfectly, I think... maybe an old Conn Monster valve set, or a setup derived from a Conn sousa. I want to put a 20K short-action valve set on one of those bodies someday.

KingBassTrombone wrote:The 321/201 are 0.730" bore horns. A valve set from a Conn with 0.734" bore would fit almost perfectly, I think... maybe an old Conn Monster valve set, or a setup derived from a Conn sousa. I want to put a 20K short-action valve set on one of those bodies someday.

Maybe.

I do think that the YBB-321 has "too much bore". Compared to the YBB-631 and YBB-632 which both have a smaller (0.689") bore and required slower leadpipe taper, the YBB-321 (in my experience) has some weird inconsistencies across the registers with both pitch and feel. A proper leadpipe and King 2341 valve set might be a much-needed improvement.

Makes me wonder why Yamaha doesn't take that YBB-621 valve cluster and work it into a YBB-321 body. It might be a solid tuba and give the 2341 and others a run for the money regarding easy-to-blow and decent sound output.

^ I dunno, I think the .728" valve bore is just about right on the YBB-321/201 tubas. Yamaha changed that bugle a bit over the years, including the leadpipe. The older 1970s - early 80s models featured a smaller leadpipe (among a few other minor differences), that I feel make it more responsive than the modern version. Aside from the sharp Eb-F-G 6th partial and flat 1st space Ab, they play pretty well in tune with a big 'vanilla' sound that blends well in band.

Since the bugle is ridiculously open-wrap, (with the top bow only a couple inches from the bell rim) I have thought a more compact-wrap version with front piston valves would make an even better tuba.
Pasting a .687" King valveset onto that bugle might work. However, the YBB-321/201 bugle uses a very short leadpipe since it is based off the old Besson BBb tubas. So it would require a bit more engineering to do it right than at first glance

A King valveset would take some work, but could give OK results.

With that said, a Weril 18.5mm (.728") set would be an identical match, or a Conn .734" would be just as good, IMO.

T. J. Ricer wrote:Something like this?
http://galvanizedjazz.com/tuba/4sale/TubasForSale.html" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Yup.