22K thread:

[bloke]

There's nothing left to do now other than stick this thing together. I hope the valve section goes on to the fiberglass body really easily and that I don't nick up too much of the fresh paint in the process.

[bloke]

done.
"reveal" tomorrow.

[bloke]

[bloke]

The attaching points of these (early version) 22K sousaphones were very different from those made later.

(Notice the complete lack of signature Conn band braces.)

Also, notice that the 4th branch (unlike later) is made of fiberglass (rather than brass).

It's not all that interesting, but if anyone is curious regarding the attaching points, I'm willing to take some closeups of them.

[Grumpikins]

Looks great!

Sent from my SM-S367VL using Tapatalk

[MiBrassFS]

It does look very good!

Too bad about that big scratch in the new paint…

[bloke]

There aren't any scratches in the fresh paint. There might be a gouge that didn't sand out. as I decided to not Bondo, fiberglass, or epoxy anything that wasn't actually cracked.

Truth be told, the paint on the very bottom (2nd branch) is a bit thin - after looking it over with a really critical eye. I was actually laying on the ground (on my back) spraying up at the bottom trying to get enough paint on it - but obviously didn't, so I'm going to newspaper over the valveset, set the thing upside down on something soft, and actually hit the bottom (while it's facing upwards) with another coat. I also need to get a little brush or Q-tip and go around the outside edge of the bell with another little coat of paint, because catching that edge really well - from either side of the bell - would have defined overspray on the opposite side.

[BramJ]

Very nice! It looks like new

[bloke]

Very nice! It looks like new

Thank you. It does look almost like new in the pictures but if you get really close there are a lot of little things, but the effect and the repairs have been well achieved, in my view.

The pistons haven't even been oiled once, and also haven't stuck once - though they are not-at-all loose - so I'm glad about their fit. I sort of picked through pistons that I had and I believe one that I chose to exchange is not original to this valveset. Besides knowing that they are not loose from measuring things and looking at things, they have that "draggy" feel of very dry valves, so I feel really good about the valves. To me, the worst thing I can do is sell someone a brass instrument with valves that stick or that leak.

I'm thinking that not many fiberglass sousaphones get fixed up nice anymore, but to make sure that the female connector from the small end of the fiberglass fourth branch to the valve section doesn't later come off or crack loose and leak, I wiggled it and intentionally broke it loose, cleaned off all the cement, made sure that I didn't paint the end of that fiberglass, and re- epoxied it simultaneously with remounting the valveset. The fit of the two brass pieces is not an O-ring connection on this very early version, but is an approximately inch long slide connection with a tension screw - much like with a sousaphone neck. To prevent epoxying the valve section to the fiberglass body, I very carefully greased the slide fitting and then put epoxy on the fiberglass end of the fourth branch - which I judged to be only about 25% too much epoxy - but very evenly coated all the way around. It turned out really nice and (once installed) just q-tipped off the surplus. We still have a little bit of that superb Armstrong epoxy which is white, and used that on this (rather than dollar store epoxy, or even JB Weld which frankly are plenty good for most applications) to ensure a very good glue joint. I got a lot of help from Mrs bloke on this (steadying the valve section during attachment, and holding and handing me things) which prevented me from making a big mess.

With both tuning bits, a pretty much normal medium deep mouthpiece, and about an inch pull on the tuning slide in a room cooled to the 70s, the open pitches are reasonably well in tune. Unlike the 20J short action tuba, the lower open f is plenty well enough up to pitch, and - just like the long discontinued 4/4 Conn sousaphones - first valve c is pretty flat.

[MiBrassFS]

You caught me! It does look great!

You know, except for that little dent…!

[bloke]

You caught me! It does look great!

You know, except for that little dent…!

There are more than one little dent.
If curious, I can zoom in and - just in case they still don't show up in 2D - I can circle them for you.
I predict that the paint will be scratched plenty good by the time this instrument ends up at its new home.

[MiBrassFS]

I love doing that when someone shows me their new instrument…

“Wow, that is really great, but… how’d you get that scratch/dent…?” Anxiety/hilarity ensue! They almost always fall for it, too.

[arpthark]

Okay, it looks like you've got the coat of primer on. What color are you going to paint it now?

[bloke]

Okay, it looks like you've got the coat of primer on. What color are you going to paint it now?

I'm applying a coating of contact cement with a concave paint roller and I'm going to let it dry for about 5 or 8 minutes. I have about four yards of rainbow velour from the '70s that I never used for anything, and just had an epiphany.

[bloke]

btw...
The neck is one of those "recycled" ones I discussed in another thread:

- un-solder, remove twisted/cracked tube
- install new tube/reassemble
- polish and re-lacquer

[bloke]

This has been seen by its new owner and played by them as well. There was not room in their vehicle, and it's going to be picked up in about two weeks. Additionally, they will be bringing a sousaphone padded bag (which makes me feel much better about them transporting it in the back of their small car with a whole bunch of other stuff jammed in with it).

In the meantime - even though I tried to be thorough and conscientious, I found a couple of thin spots in the white paint (and went back over those), so it's just as well that it was left here.

[TxTx]

Truly beautiful. Brings back memories of marching band - I can feel it in my shoulder just looking at it.

Eric

[bloke]

Truly beautiful. Brings back memories of marching band - I can feel it in my shoulder just looking at it.

Eric

Quite a few years ago, a university donated an entire practice set of King fiberglass (which were the ones they use during the week whereas, they used silver King instruments at the games) plus several of these older short action fiberglass (which were left over from a previous generation at the University, whereby these had the single instruments which were used daily and at the games prior to getting the Kings)
...to a huge public school system in their same city.

They went to a warehouse which also contained a musical instrument repair shop which was school system owned and run. The foreman of the repair shop was fine with these, but one of the middle management of the warehouse looked at them, became indignant that used equipment would be donated to them, and ordered all dozen of the King fiberglass and the three or four of these Conn short action fiberglass to be thrown in the dumpster. I caught wind of it, and fished all that stuff out.

By several years ago, I had done restorations on all of the Kings and sold them off too various schools that wanted them (and there are still schools that have use for stuff like this). As an example, I sold three of them to a very exclusive private school. It was the perfect thing for them. They usually had two or three players, maybe a 25 to 35 piece band, and these were very suitable for sitting in the bleachers and playing pep music at football and basketball games.

If you've read some of my posts, I regret having sold off every single King, because these were the lightest weight, best made, and simplest to assemble and disassemble of all of the versions of King fiberglass, and King is - to me - the easiest to play and the best in tune of all of the sousaphones. I would love to have one for outdoor stand up gigs. Every time I try to find one, they are priced just about the same these days (and a bit more than I would care to pay).

I had never restored and sold ANY of the two or three or four short action Conn fiberglass, because I had sort of been holding onto the valve sections just in case I picked up dogged out old 38k (worn-out standard valves) 6/4 sousaphones and could use these short action valve sections to transplant over to them. I actually did that with one. I went ahead and did a restoration on this 22K, because I had a specific request for it and a trade opportunity/deal that really appealed to me. I don't believe I've restored a 22K ever before in my entire life. These particular ones - as I've pointed out before - are interesting, because they are some of the earliest ones which feature a fiberglass fourth branch, which allows for the attaching system to be nearly invisible and avoiding the large brass hoops which go around the fiberglass. As much wear and tear as was put on these by the university, the valves are still great and the caps come on and off so easily, which is a testament to the Elkhart workmanship. I have no comment about the short action valves made currently.

[pjv]

I'm curious,
after all the work you put into it, why didn't you make the first valve slide tuneable with the left hand?

[bloke]

I'm curious,
after all the work you put into it, why didn't you make the first valve slide tuneable with the left hand?

Well...Unknown to most sousaphonists, the 22K already plays perfectly in tune.

real reason: The person who asked me to sell this to them (trade this with them for something else) would never use it.
................I'm not sure that I would, either. If I ever manage to stumble across a 1990's (real fiberglass - not resin) King fiberglass (one of those "I'd like to have one for cheap" things), I'm not even sure that I would get into that for my own use.