Fix, parts, or scrap?

[prodigal]

Hi Friends,

I found this old King/HN White/Cleveland sousaphone on top of a locker. It is missing the leadpipe assembly, but the valves move smoothly.

Fix it up, part it out, or off to my local scrapyard. (They pay pretty well for brass.)

WIN_20260618_08_17_43_Pro_optimized.jpg (50.54 KiB) Viewed 501 times

[arpthark]

Fix! These are great sousaphones.

I owned one which was school surplus. The thing to watch out for if buying a neck is to buy the old-style King neck instead of the new-style King neck. They're both L-shaped, but the old one has the mouthpiece receiver on the short end of the L and the new one has the receiver on the long end of the L. Just based on the lacquer and the look of this one, I am almost sure it takes an old-style neck.

Send it up to Connecticut and I'll strip the orange lacquer and un-goof it a little bit!

[tubatodd]

I'm hoping you're trolling us here and you wouldn't consider scrapping an HN white sousa because of a misssing neck

[Schlitzz]

This is one of those perfect pitch exercises for one of those viola players. You toss it into a flaming dumpster, without hitting the sides. Nothing but net.

Seriously? FIX IT!!!

[Sousaswag]

Old instruments are always worth fixing. Especially that one.

[bort2.0]

In general, it's pretty obvious when the answer isn't "fix"

But this one is a "fix"

[iiipopes]

FIX! (As in, rhymes with 186, the usual standard answer to obvious questions on the other forum)

[bloke]

It's also missing the lower mouth pipe tube and receiver as well as the bracing system for the lower mouth pipe. It's actually missing several hundred dollars worth of parts, but there's still no reason to "scrap" a sousaphone, because of all the other parts are worth so much money.
I distinguish "scrapping" from "parting out" - and I distinguish both of those from "selling as is", but I still don't know if the person that owns this instrument could make a profit after paying a repair guy to straighten out the instrument and supplying the expensive parts.
I've dealt with the current prices on those parts routinely and very recently; it's not casual money anymore.

Today, even Jupiter repair parts (which could be frankensteined on to that King) pricing is highfalutin.

[the elephant]

I'll take it if you don't want it.

[bloke]

I'll take it if you don't want it.

off-topic:
I sold that really nice 1970s lightweight King fiberglass that I had. I'm not sure why I sold it , but - after selling it, and wondering why the heck I did that - I went up into the attic, looked through a bunch of boxes, and found everything that is needed to build a brass King sousaphone complete body - including one of those better old-style valve sections with the wider main tuning slide bow, yet with good valves. (I have a brass King bell that I kept, which I was playing around with on the fiberglass body... A "plus" is that the brass bell is one of the later vintage ones which is thinner and weighs less. )

I have a gig in October whereby I'm going to need a sousaphone. I have some 20Ks upstairs - one or two of which are playable, but those are for selling eventually. To each his own, but (not enough "punch") I just don't like playing those. (Maybe, because my sousaphone jobs - these days - are so few and far between is why I sold the fiberglass.)

Previously, I also sold another brass (very worn silver, zero dents) King - as an emergency sousaphone - to a college. It had a circa 1949 body mated it to a 1960 bell. It weighed a full 30 lbs. (Not approximately, but THIRTY) This one will be a bit lighter and will feature much better piston/casing tolerances.
...Maybe (??) I'll install an upper number one tuning slide on this one and eliminate the lower #1 tuning slide for epic on-the-fly tuning (to eliminate most of those three valve tuba tuning compromises).

[prodigal]

Thanks for the replies! I'm trying to get some stuff cleaned out of long term storage. We'll see what happens in September..

We have too many souzies at school. (I said to overhaul the fiberglass Kings, they ordered new Jupiters. )

[Mary Ann]

I'll take it if you don't want it.

Yeahbut you won't let him ship it.

[the elephant]

True…

[prodigal]

If I could float it down the Mississippi....

[bloke]

If I could float it down the Mississippi....

I don't know how they do it, but many many many times I've seen them make coal and gravel float.

[prodigal]

My cousin used to drive barges from Paducah to New Orleans.

Hopefully I can get it out of prison in August.

[bloke]

I used to be a Conn sousaphone fan, but I've changed to admiring King.
They're just better, whether they're compared to the 14K (a little bit larger than King) or the 20K (considerably larger than King).

In between were the Olds and Reynolds. They featured a King bore size in the valve section and sort of a 14k size body... Goofy intonation. Holton sousaphones also sport goofy intonation.

Jupiter is sort of a disappointing copy of King.
Yamaha is six quarter and okay, but typical Yamaha bland.

[prodigal]

At one time, I had a Buescher franken-souzy with mostly King parts, it played pretty miserably, but the price was right, aka FREE.

If I take up mobile (marching) playing again, me being the weird, eccentric self that I am, would like a rotary helicon or a recording bell 186, just to stick out.

[bloke]

Yes. I seldom need a sousaphone... but I just like having one - and like having one that's a King.

------------------

Okay this is weird:

"Sir Duke" just popped into my head when typing the previous sentence, and my fingers (referring to another thread about mashing the right buttons) played that big long lick (with the three valve fingering system) in B major (B flat instrument).

... I've never played "Sir Duke" on the tuba before (certainly not in the right key, and I have cheated in gone through it in B flat at home), much less a sousaphone... I honestly don't think my fingers made any mistakes.

I'll have to pick up the small Holton B flat tomorrow, only use three valves, and see if I can actually play it as well as I just ghost-fingered it.

Actually playing it tomorrow, I can imagine that the F sharps in the staff might end up being stumbling blocks, because - with all that tubing (valves 2+3 on a B flat instrument) those require perfect embouchure focus.