new 4 valve sousaphones for HS band

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:04 pm

I note that a couple of high school music programs are leaving large brass (mostly tubas and sousaphones) out of their annual repair and refurb budget. One band directory explained it to me as "Look, do you know how many clarinets I can get refurbed for the cost of fixing one bashed-to-hell tuba?".

Makes sense to me.

sloan · Post by **sloan** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:43 pm

bloke wrote:
TubaTinker wrote:
richland tuba 01 wrote:we have 2 tuba players(not me!) that every time anyone says "run-through", even if they're not about to do a run-through, they punch the back parts of eachother's bells as hard as they can, so they can have a dent for every run-through. Maybe these new tubas will convince them to stop. they're not bad players either.
If you see this type of activity and fail to report it to the proper authorities, then I would consider you just as guilty as the morons doing it. You CAN make a difference.
nnah...

...They're getting nice shiny new (for a few minutes) sousaphones... ...' remember?

bloke "That's why I live in a 'poor' county of under 30K people with only ONE badly run-down public high school...I don't like the idea of having large chunks of my money taken through coercion - and then spent on soon-to-be-destroyed expensive new equipment purchased for public schools."

You know...it's probably not the kids who are at fault (and who are destroying "public property"). There's zero chance that the BD doesn't know this is going on - but he probably cares more about having two more warm bodies carrying big bells on the field than he does about anything else. Big numbers on the field are what the Band Parents' Association cares about, and they give him a budget big enough to trash a sousaphone or two every other year.

It's absolutely trivial to stop this kind of behavior, if that's what you want to do. But, the BD is the one, and only one, who can do anything about it. If he doesn't, I would assume that he approves.

Lee Stofer · Post by **Lee Stofer** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:50 pm

Bloke,
Thanks for the research. I had posted my concerns about skimpy construction of the Weril sousaphones, based upon someone posting that they weigh less than what most 3-valve sousaphones do. At 30 lb, that is certainly not a lightweight, and is most likely a quite good instrument after all. I've certainly had no trouble with any of their concert tubas, trombones or woodwinds that I've sold.

You know, I've been considering making a super-fiberglass sousaphone for my own use, too. I have a Holton fiberglass body in near-perfect condition that I'm thinking about re-fitting with a Boehm & Meinl 3-v. valveset. Someone had apparently over-expanded one of the Holton valve casings, so that valveset is in the valve parts bin. I think that the B & M valveset in a lightweight horn should be "the bomb". If it works out, I'll post pics.

I think that we are agreed, that people are for the most part getting what they ask for, as they vote with their Dollars, and that what is happening in our schools is reflective of our society as a whole.

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:41 pm

BTW -- the first thing I did when I found the old Conn/Cavalier (pre-14k, but made the same) souzy I occasionally play in the back of a closet, besides making sure it actually worked, was to get the upper 1st valve loop made into a usable slide. With the exception of 2nd space C being just a hair flat, everything has good intonation, and it has exceptional false pedals starting with open EEb and going down to 12 CC, so that a 4th valve would actually get in the way and possibly muck up the nodes from the added weight, another valve port to have to negotiate, and the addition of necessary bracing that could damp a necessary compression node and throw the whole thing out of whack if not done correctly.

jacojdm · Post by **jacojdm** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:37 pm

bloke wrote:SORRY !!!

The ENTIRE time I was reading "MTS" (made in Elkhart, Indiana - lower priced/less apt to crack), I was THINKING "SKB" (higher priced - made elsewhere)

Here is the (good/economical/crack-resistant) MTS:

Richland, you indeed have the GOOD MTS cases. I've been doing a brain-fart on this all day!!!

bloke "again, SORRY !!! "

On the plus side, however, when your SKB does crack (and it will), it's replaced for the cost of shipping it back to California.