Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2026 9:17 am
by arpthark
I was chatting with a guy from Brazil who lives in the USA and he buys Chinese valvesets on Ali Baba and grafts them to Conn 20J bottom bow/bodies and Jupiter marching tuba bells, and sells the finished product in Brazil. Pretty interesting. I'd like to find the link to the 4-piston valvesets he uses.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2026 10:14 am
by gocsick
I have a dream project of making a 5-valve rotary 20J... still in BBb. Of course if I am doing that I would have to get all the dents out of it first...
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2026 6:13 pm
by jose the tuba player
arpthark wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2026 9:17 am
I was chatting with a guy from Brazil who lives in the USA and he buys Chinese valvesets on Ali Baba and grafts them to Conn 20J bottom bow/bodies and Jupiter marching tuba bells, and sells the finished product in Brazil. Pretty interesting. I'd like to find the link to the 4-piston valvesets he uses.
I believe he's Felipe bacon on YouTube. From my understanding he uses the new style one piece 5/4 tuba Bell not the Jupiter quantum detachable bell like I originally thought. He's built one with the Jupiter 4 valve sousaphone cluster and one with the York style Chinese front action valve set.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2026 6:19 pm
by jose the tuba player
gocsick wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2026 10:14 am
I have a dream project of making a 5-valve rotary 20J... still in BBb. Of course if I am doing that I would have to get all the dents out of it first...
The issue is the layout of the valves on the compact 20j body. I think if you used something where all the valve slides stay on the front of the horn it could work. https://www.schillerinstruments.com/sto ... r-bb-tuba/
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
arpthark wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2026 9:17 am
I was chatting with a guy from Brazil who lives in the USA and he buys Chinese valvesets on Ali Baba and grafts them to Conn 20J bottom bow/bodies and Jupiter marching tuba bells, and sells the finished product in Brazil. Pretty interesting. I'd like to find the link to the 4-piston valvesets he uses.
I believe he's Felipe bacon on YouTube. From my understanding he uses the new style one piece 5/4 tuba Bell not the Jupiter quantum detachable bell like I originally thought. He's built one with the Jupiter 4 valve sousaphone cluster and one with the York style Chinese front action valve set.
I met him in person and his name is Samuel, but there may be multiple people doing the same thing.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2026 9:59 pm
by bloke
That sousaphone valveset appears to be ready to bolt onto a (vintage, not last-era, but early-era) King sousaphone body.
The thing is that a body and bell are going to cost several hundred dollars and will need repairs.
The cost will end up being the same as waiting for a complete vintage King fiberglass sousaphone (in ready-to-play condition) to be offered at competitive pricing.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2026 8:24 pm
by Tubajug
At one point, they had a 0.75 bore, four- valve set on that website, but I can't seem to find it anymore.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2026 10:12 pm
by jose the tuba player
Tubajug wrote: Sun Jun 07, 2026 8:24 pm
At one point, they had a 0.75 bore, four- valve set on that website, but I can't seem to find it anymore.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2026 10:06 am
by bloke
At least to me, another 20j issue is having to play F with 1-3 and E with 1-2-3.
To each their own, but - me personally - I'm not investing hundreds of hours in a tuba build whereby I'm going to have to end up doing those sorts of things.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
arpthark wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2026 9:17 am
I was chatting with a guy from Brazil who lives in the USA and he buys Chinese valvesets on Ali Baba and grafts them to Conn 20J bottom bow/bodies and Jupiter marching tuba bells, and sells the finished product in Brazil. Pretty interesting. I'd like to find the link to the 4-piston valvesets he uses.
I believe he's Felipe bacon on YouTube. From my understanding he uses the new style one piece 5/4 tuba Bell not the Jupiter quantum detachable bell like I originally thought. He's built one with the Jupiter 4 valve sousaphone cluster and one with the York style Chinese front action valve set.
I met him in person and his name is Samuel, but there may be multiple people doing the same thing.
He adds the hashtag Samuel in his YouTube shorts.
I don't speak Portuguese but from what I can gather he said it's a ??? Bell a 6/4 body with a Jupiter Bb sousaphone valve section.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2026 5:49 pm
by jose the tuba player
bloke wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2026 10:06 am
At least to me, another 20j issue is having to play F with 1-3 and E with 1-2-3.
To each their own, but - me personally - I'm not investing hundreds of hours in a tuba build whereby I'm going to have to end up doing those sorts of things.
What causes this? Bore distortion through the short action valves? Or the detachable Bell collars? The lead pipe that tapers quickly?
I think a better question is what reasonable modernization upgrades can one do to the 2xj bugle before hitting diminishing returns?
If the Brazilians are correct and a Jupiter one piece bell is an upgrade than you are looking at almost 1k for just the bell. If I sell my 21j bell to pay for the body I'm only about 1k into the horn depending on labor costs. That might be worth the gamble.
Next question is should we have someone like omalley brass draw out a lead pipe with a more gradual taper? Is that few hundred dollar minimum leadpipe worth the upgrade? We retain the valve section and avoid the need to flip the bugle for a front action valve section but we maintain bore distortion.
Or should we instead find a ybb321 hulk and transplant the valve section and Yamaha lead pipe over? Might be a cost effective way to get 4 regular valves along with more readily available parts. Thus getting rid of the bore distortion while maintaining the upright valves.
I'm personally not a fan of 4 valve upright tubas but I'm assuming one can get a ybb321 valve sections easier than trying to source a 4 valve piston valve section that would fix the 2xj bugle.
I think the allure of a 2xj Frankenstein tuba is the low cost and availability of the 2xj bugle. But I agree that the time and effort might not yield a tuba that's better compared to the original product.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2026 5:51 pm
by bloke
...or - if looking for cheap - buy a Jinbao Holton 6/4 knockoff direct from China for c. $4K and be done with it.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2026 5:55 pm
by jose the tuba player
bloke wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2026 5:51 pm
...or - if looking for cheap - buy a Jinbao Holton 6/4 knockoff direct from China for c. $4K and be done with it.
I was offered a 1 year old Wessex with 5 valves in silver plate with case for 4 grand cash price. The pedals didn't really come out as easily as my beat up 21j. My."good" 21j plays slightly better. If the price comes down or they want to trade for my 6 valve mirafone 183 I'll consider it.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2026 7:08 pm
by gocsick
bloke wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2026 10:06 am
To each their own, but - me personally - I'm not investing hundreds of hours in a tuba build whereby I'm going to have to end up doing those sorts of things.
Because for me the build is the fun. I don't spend time on my workshop too pay the bills. It is a hobby, and I can spend a couple of hours, with a beer or two, and unwind from a difficult week. I've done two C Ambassador trumpet builds for semi-pro friends* in exchange for post favors in one case and in exchange for a LA Olds Cornet and a busted Yamaha trombone for the other. Both supplied the donor trumpet. To be honest I would have done it for fun in both cases.
I like working on my own stuff and learning. It didn't have to make financial or even musical sense to be worth it. Basically any instrument project I take on will cost less than cars, motorcycles, guns, cards, horses, etc.
* According to one... he's used it for 3 paying gigs, so I should call myself a "professional trumpet" builder.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2026 7:17 pm
by bloke
jose... To each his own. I would hope that every person who owns any sort of musical instrument is absolutely delighted with it.
gocsick... To be more clear, I'm not going to spend hundreds of hours glorifying a tuba bugle through which it's not going to end up being an absolute joy to play music. To increase my chances of being lucky, I do quite a few pretests before really committing to a build.
I can't think of the last time I repaired or customized someone's tuba (working on them as if they were my own) that I thought to myself, "Wow... Were it that this were mine!"
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
I believe he's Felipe bacon on YouTube. From my understanding he uses the new style one piece 5/4 tuba Bell not the Jupiter quantum detachable bell like I originally thought. He's built one with the Jupiter 4 valve sousaphone cluster and one with the York style Chinese front action valve set.
I met him in person and his name is Samuel, but there may be multiple people doing the same thing.
He adds the hashtag Samuel in his YouTube shorts.
I don't speak Portuguese but from what I can gather he said it's a ??? Bell a 6/4 body with a Jupiter Bb sousaphone valve section.
That tuba looks and sounds like it turned out incredibly well! Impressive Thanks for posting that.
Check out his other videos. A bunch of different frankentubas, and they all look factory. There is even a 6-piston helicon
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2026 12:46 pm
by bloke
The open F did not sound flat.
Re: Chinese sousaphone valve sections for franken tuba?;
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2026 4:28 pm
by EmptyCase
arpthark wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2026 9:17 am
I was chatting with a guy from Brazil who lives in the USA and he buys Chinese valvesets on Ali Baba and grafts them to Conn 20J bottom bow/bodies and Jupiter marching tuba bells, and sells the finished product in Brazil. Pretty interesting. I'd like to find the link to the 4-piston valvesets he uses.
Thanks for posting that.
