What is it with the elderly tubists and their sense for numbers and pitches? The two of us have had our troubles in that area recently, not all of them in public.bloke wrote:So far, these are the only two Conn-made sousaphones that I've seen with a .687" bore.
In the 1968 catalogue even the lighter 10K BBb has the 0.734" bore.
But I own proof that Conn made 0.689"-bore sousaphones over two decades or more. Only they were in Eb.
My 28K is made for the US army in 1946 at a point of time, where the Eb basses already appear to become out of fashion as members of the US school bands. It may be here on TN that a poster said that Conn continued making Eb sousaphones as long as they had leftover pre-WWII parts.
A .689" 4 piston block hardly would make sense on the Conn BBb frames, whereas a .689" 3 piston would not create un-fullfilled dreams of an efficient 4 valve BBb sousaphone.
What I try to hint is that the two Continental Clarion BBb sousaphones may have been a Conn attempt of making good and marketable use of overstock Eb parts. All the Conn’s that I have seen documented, maybe aside of the 46K/48K’s, use the same necks. Eb and BBb Conn sousaphones have different lower leadpipes. Putting longer loops on the piston blocks would be easy-0
The bore adaption from the .689 block to the larger BBb frame may have happened in the legs to or from the main tuning slide.
By using an unusual model name Conn freed themselves from customer expectations based on other, more standard, models.
Klaus
But given the recurring bore threads here, I'm intrigued by the possibility of comparing similar horns whose main difference is bore size, within scope of the horns' design intent.
-actually pick up an actual dictionary. 