A school handed me four (thin-wall - modern era) King sousaphones...the ones with the stick-on plastic guard wires.
The "bottom bow" (2nd branch) was more than 50% caved in, and actually concave, YET, I was able to (and no, *I'm not saying that anyone could do it...It wasn't that easy...) completely straighten it out with earth magnets (and a few pre-magnet whacks with a large rawhide mallet along the rim of the large concave area). ...and sure: The first branch (the one that trails along behind the player's back) was trashed, too, but only "regular trashed".
bloke "thin"
__________________________________________ *This sort of work really requires a great deal of wrist/hand/finger strength...the type not typically acquired from "working out" in a gym, etc...
Nice job as always bloke! That reminds me of way back in high school (so many memories from that time) when the band director had two old H.N. White-era King sousas -- a King 1250 and a 1270 'Giant' sousa refurbished/overhauled, complete with de-denting and new silverplating. Long story short, the upperclassmen got first dibs on the newly-refurbished King sousas. We were doing a space-theme show that year (E.T., Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.) where we had to run over to the frontline, put our sousas down quick, put on our 'alien' masks, and play cymbals for a short tune. The player on the King Giant kept putting his sousa down too hard every time -- I could hear the buckling of the brass every time he put it down hard on the ground. The bottom bow kept getting more and more crushed in until it was pretty much crushed in halfway and completely out of round. I got to play that sousa after he graduated, and I thought it played and sounded great, even with the crushed in bottom bow. I took it to the "fix it man" so he could re-solder the wire at the top of the female bell tenon because it kept coming loose. He was called "Dan the fix-it man" who did on the spot repairs free for the band. He blamed me for the caved-in bottom bow because he never noticed it until I had that sousa I told him it was already like that from the previous player, but he stated that the bottom bow wasn't like that before Kinda pissed me off that old fart thought I did it, even though I was always carefull with any sousa I was playing
If he was the one who did the overhauls, I bet (trying to get the old concrete/asphalt scratches out of the bottom bow) it was HIM who buffed the CRAP out of that second branch (resulting in wall thickness similar to that found with the current-era King/Conn sousaphones)...so - in reality - it was HIS d@mn fault.
bloke wrote:If he was the one who did the overhauls, I bet (trying to get the old concrete/asphalt scratches out of the bottom bow) it was HIM who buffed the CRAP out of that second branch (resulting in wall thickness similar to that found with the current-era King/Conn sousaphones)...so - in reality - it was HIS d@mn fault.
The band director (RIP) sent those sousas off to "the Midwest" (probably Borodi Music?) to be overhauled during the summer, right before my freshman year of high school. "Dan the fix-it man" was just a local guy doing repairs on-the-spot for the school. The local repair guy in town (who was really good, and has since moved his way up in a well-known music company) stated that Dan brought in many repairs to him because he basically f*cked up those repairs One of the sousas had a large crease taken out of the bell, complete with deep scarring. I asked one of the other sousa players how it happened, and he told me that Dan didn't set up the sousa securely on the wall-mount, and the sousa fell to the floor, so he had to repair that large crease. Did I mention how Dan had to re-solder the bell wire a couple times? That was all almost 25 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Yeah, Dan the fix-it man was, um, something else....
Three Valves wrote:This kinda crap never happened to our fiberglass Sousas...
I would be quite happy if ALL high schools purchased King fiberglass sousaphones. (Disagreeing with some opinions), they sound great, play in tune (even better in-tune than Conn), are a bit less work to play than Conn (infinitely easier to play than Taiwan sousaphones), are lightweight, are incredibly sturdy, and - well - we could devote energy and attention to things other than un-destroying silver plated (grey and brown) brass sousaphones year-after-year each summer...as our services are constantly in demand by all sorts of people, and not just "schools with trailer-loads of smashed-up sousaphones".
One of the sousas had a large crease taken out of the bell, complete with deep scarring. I asked one of the other sousa players how it happened, and he told me that Dan didn't set up the sousa securely on the wall-mount, and the sousa fell to the floor, so he had to repair that large crease. Did I mention how Dan had to re-solder the bell wire a couple times? That was all almost 25 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. Yeah, Dan the fix-it man was, um, something else.... 
