The King! The King!

[windshieldbug]

Funky Tut!!!

[Alex F]

If I tried, at the moment, to spend another dime on any "tuba-related" issue, my wife says that will embed my Helleburg about 3 inches right in the center of my forehead.

Tuck

Consider yourself lucky, she could choose another anatomical insertion point that might make removal, and subsequent re-use, a bit more dicey.

[billeuph]

Bug:
I'm 6'2", and rotund at about 255. Who knows, maybe the designer of the 2341 decided to build a horn that would be a great fit for us big boys.

Interesting, since I'm 5'8" and weigh 135 pounds, and I think that the king 2341 fits me perfectly, too.

The valves are definitely noisy. I suspect that a long overdue trip to Dillons will cure this, just like it did for my Besson 982. Matt installed rubber pads on both sides of the valve springs that really silenced valve operation.

Bill Anderson

[Lew]

I find that as long as I empty the first valve slide (at the top) periodically while playing and especially before putting the horn down, I rarely have to do the "King Spin." As for the valve noise, it is endemic with this horns due to the metal valve guides. Lee Stofer mentioned that there is a company that makes nylon guides that will fit into the King valves without modification. You could contact him to see what it would take. I haven't done that yet, but replacing the guides with nylon should really quiet them down. Even without doing that, the noise isn't bad enough that it can be heard from the audience, or at least that's what my wife tells me .

[tofu]

I find that as long as I empty the first valve slide (at the top) periodically while playing and especially before putting the horn down, I rarely have to do the "King Spin." As for the valve noise, it is endemic with this horns due to the metal valve guides. Lee Stofer mentioned that there is a company that makes nylon guides that will fit into the King valves without modification. You could contact him to see what it would take. I haven't done that yet, but replacing the guides with nylon should really quiet them down. Even without doing that, the noise isn't bad enough that it can be heard from the audience, or at least that's what my wife tells me .

Matt Walters over at Dillon Music has a conversion kit (or at least did when I bought my horn) 3 years ago. I think the valve guides and springs were Yamaha, but I'm not certain. My valves have not had the valve noise other folks seem to have so I haven't converted them -- yet.