OK, it's settled: brass vs. fiberglass

[sloan]

Actually...I seem to remember talking to Chuck Daellenbach once and him mentioning a fiberglass (or was it carbon fiber) bell for the CB50

Yup - he performed with one for some time. I *think* he's now back to an all-metal 621 for quartet performances but something larger with the carbon fiber bell for ensembles larger than 8 or so. (there may be several inadvertant approximations in the previous sentence...)

[djwesp]

This can't be for reals blokeypoo.

[Donn]

Can we not agree that, that was a bit harsh?

I'll go along with that, but unfortunately you erroneously attributed the quote. At this writing no one has quoted your article, so there's time to fix it.

[joh_tuba]

So if one were in a position to buy a NEW(must be new due to institutional funding reasons) fiberglass sousaphone what would be the consensus choice?

My personal favorite solution was used by one of the DC Air Force bands. The inner brass valve section was silver plated. The fiberglass bell and body were the smooth(not pebble) finish. The body was taken to an auto body shop and spray painted a satin silver. From more than five feet away it looked like a gorgeous satin silver tuba but would never collect dents or tarnish like a real silver tuba. And it's lighter to boot! I'm inclined to believe the sound difference between a fiberglass and brass sousa isn't significant. I think a satin silver fiberglass tuba would make a killing if a marketing guy ran with the idea. It just makes too much sense!

[Mcordon1]

I guess the only mainstream choices are King, Jupiter, Yamaha, and (fairly new to the market under various names) a Communist Chinese copy-of-a-Jupiter-copy-of-a-King/Olds-hybrid.


The Taiwanese under-engineering (flanges and receivers all made of only standard wall thickness material, pot metal waterkeys, etc.) is one thing but the way they play is insult on top of injury. If shopping "metal", for roughly similar dough you can get a Brazilian-made large-bore four-valve sousaphone, or for considerably LESS dough (if you know where to look) you can get a JinBao Communist Chinese certainly-as-well-made-as-Jupiter copy of a Conn 20K.

Where would one find these economical large bore 4 valve sousas?