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If anyone has a Conn 26J (?) tuba with 4-valve, front-action, short-stroke pistons available for sale, please email or PM me. I presume it would take the interchangeable 2xJ Conn bells, so may also be known by another model # with the "other" bell.

Upright, recording, or no bell at all would be of interest.

Thanks in advance for any assistance in this matter!

Good luck finding one of these. I assume that some were made, and have even heard rumors of one or two that exist, but have never actually seen one in person. Steve Dillon told me that he has never seen one either. The closest I came was a 22J that I owned, which has 3 front/side action short action valves. If you find one I would love to see some photos.

Mike Lynch, do you own one of these?

Lew,
I don't own one. I have played a couple that were in high schools in Texas back in the early 70's, but those were the last ones that I recall seeing. The 3 valve models are not common, but show up every now and then.

Mike

I saw one of these go on e-bay a couple years ago with the upright bell. I think it sold for well over $3,000 but have not seen one since. Maybe some one could make one for you out of a 20J body and 20K valve section plus add the extra valve. I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap, but you would have what you wanted...maybe... Not sure if it would play the same. Just an idea.

WilliamVance wrote:I saw one of these go on e-bay a couple years ago with the upright bell. I think it sold for well over $3,000 but have not seen one since. Maybe some one could make one for you out of a 20J body and 20K valve section plus add the extra valve. I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap, but you would have what you wanted...maybe... Not sure if it would play the same. Just an idea.

Not a bad idea, but the 20K has a bore of 0.734; the 20J, 0.770, so it'd play differently and reqiure a different leadpipe and tuning slide at the very least. Maybe a 20K valveset for the first 3 and a 20K valve modified for front action (not trivial) for the 4th valve might be another possibility.

Chuck(G) wrote:

WilliamVance wrote:I saw one of these go on e-bay a couple years ago with the upright bell. I think it sold for well over $3,000 but have not seen one since. Maybe some one could make one for you out of a 20J body and 20K valve section plus add the extra valve. I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap, but you would have what you wanted...maybe... Not sure if it would play the same. Just an idea.

Not a bad idea, but the 20K has a bore of 0.734; the 20J, 0.770, so it'd play differently and reqiure a different leadpipe and tuning slide at the very least. Maybe a 20K valveset for the first 3 and a 20K valve modified for front action (not trivial) for the 4th valve might be another possibility.

Didn't think about that bore size... Good point! I always just link the two in my head because of the short-action valve thing.

Looks like a 36J, with 4 regular ("long-action") valves at .770", otherwise nearly identical to the 2XJ series. These seem to be a bit more common than the front-short-action 4-bangers.