Headless King Sousaphone

[Yane]

I have a late 50s King Sousaphone body I hoped to pair with the bell from my King 1241. Turns out the 1241 bells (I have the straight and recording bells) are a bit shorter than a Sousa bell, and the resulting chimera plays wayyy sharp. I can solve the problem with a Dr Seuss train of tuning bits, but that leads to the next issue: the receiver for the neck is a bit big, about 0.658” while the King neck I have is 0.652”. I cannot tell if the receiver has been changed somewhere along the line or is simply worn out. I can get the neck to sort of fit with 3 wraps of 0.001” (ish) thick tinfoil, though clearly this isn’t a long term fix. Anybody ever see such an issue, or have suggestions for a fix? Getting the right bell and new receiver put on is not out of consideration, the body needs some dents removed anyway.

[Bill Troiano]

FWIW, I bought a King fiberglass bell for my Jupiter/Stofer CC sousaphone on eBay. It came from 1800usaband.

[Yane]

Thanks for the inputs. I see bells on eBay, they end up kind of expensive once shipping is added, i would love to find one within reasonable driving distance of a South Carolina, same for a repair source. Tuba Excahnge seems a good candidate, I think there are some good repair places near Atlanta.

[Yane]

Good to know the specified size for a king receiver, I could not find those numbers. Do you happen to know the size of other brand’s receivers? I tried a Jupiter and it was slightly too big.

[Yane]

Point taken. I must continually remind myself to be wary of clever “cheap” solutions that beget expensive new problems......