Conn 20KSP Sousa vs. Yamaha 202 Contra

Jeffrey Hicks · Post by **Jeffrey Hicks** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:21 pm

To me it would depend on the players. If they were all strong players I would say the sousas. My personal preference has always been for the Conn 14k. I think your average player gets more out of one. If new horns are what you want then I would recommend the King sousa. I do not care for Corps-style marching horns. Just my opinion....

ymmv........

ken k · Post by **ken k** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 10:08 pm

I agree with Jeff, I would not go with a 20K for HS. The are huge and cwould be a handful for a little freshman, plus the offset valves can be a bit of a maintenance issue. The King sousa is a fine horn. Do they make the Conn 14K anymore? If you are really into serious competetive marching and the marching uniformity is more important than the music then you could justify the contra style tuba, but musically I prefer the sousas. You could also use them for concert work if you had to.
ken k

sinfonian · Post by **sinfonian** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:07 pm

I would go for the Sousas. Nothing more impresive then 10 matched Sousaphones marching down the field.

MartyNeilan · Post by **MartyNeilan** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:44 pm

I am a 20K fan, but surprisingly enough I will have to vote for the Yamaha contra. These things just flat out sound good in the hands of high school players. I went to a marching band show last fall, and by far the best projection came from a band with over the shoulder tubas. I emailed the director, and it was these Yamaha 202 contras that he was using. Unfortunately, most high school kids do not seem to be able to get the kind of sound out of a 20K that they should. (Can someone say air?)

Joe Baker · Post by **Joe Baker** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:23 am

bloke wrote: Yes, the difference in the valveset bore diameter is a bit less than 1%, but (since we are all "princesses" feeling the "pea" here) remember that the 1% is added to the outside circumference of the bore of the valveset, which adds quite a bit more than 1% in valveset "volume".

Diameter increase of ~0.824% -> cross-section area of ~2.59%.
__________________________________
Joe Baker, who has never played a Yamaha 202, but would pursue the rebuilt 14Ks -- or, better yet, get Bloke to build me up some of those fiber-brass sousies he was thinking about a few weeks ago.

MartyNeilan · Post by **MartyNeilan** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:53 pm

5'7" lil old me loved playing on the 20K when the local high school had two of them; to me it played easier than my 2145 and had a huge resonant sound (not to mention wonderful false tones). It was almost embarrassing when I would demo passages because when I would play that beat up old sousaphone it had a much better sound than my shiny 5 valve German made CC. In fact, that is what ultimately led me to buy the 6/4 Martin bellfront tuba that I had for about a year, until replacing it with a more "socially acceptable" horn with a nearly comparable sound and far worse intonation.
But I digress...the overgrown and overfed kids in the tuba section who could play the 4/4 King sousas just had a hard time getting a good sound out of the 20K's and moaned constantly about the size and weight. The 20K's sat in the bandroom most of the time and were returned 2 years later. Of course, the fact that all of the kids never take lessons, practice, nor exercise could have had something to do with it.

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 7:01 am

Check the Kanstul and DEG marching tubas as well if you're going to go that route.

If the drill involves a lot of slide marching (corps-style drill), I'd go with the marching tuba -- especially if someone's going to pay attention to them and/or the kids are motivated enough to police themselves and keep their technique up to par.

In that style of drill, it's just easier to use a marching tuba. I hated, but dealt with, marching that kind of drill on sousaphone.

bigboom · Post by **bigboom** » Sun Apr 03, 2005 2:28 pm

I just finished up my last season here with the Loveland high marching band in October and having had all six of us on the conn 20K's, I would recomend them. We finally got enought this year for all of us to be on them and it is the first year I have never had the band director or judges or anyone all year ask for more tuba. As far as the size for the freshman and complaining about the shoulder pain and weight and all that stuff, they are going to say that no matter what horn they have unless you get fiberglass

I have heard the Yamaha 202 contras and played one at my audition for Vanguard and I have to say that I did like them a lot more than I thought I would. I still would recommend the 20K but that's just because I've had a good experience with them. I just think the sousaphone does a better job of spreading the sound out across the sideline whereas the contra seemed a lot more directional, imho.

Ben