Sousa Advice

[Climbingoddess]

Not sure if this should go here or in repairs/mods, but here we go:

I've got a King 2370 from (probably) the early 2000's that I've had for around 5 years now. I bought it sight unseen from Taylor Music who had just refurbished it, and last year I added a Butler carbon fiber bell to lighten the load a bit more. This horn is my daily driver for my "defiant chamber ensemble", and everything works well; it plays basically in tune with very little fiddling and does have a 1st valve pull for when it's needed. By all accounts, it's a good horn. My complaint is that it doesn't center as well as I'd like.

Every time I play my concert horn (Eastman EBB226), I dread picking up my sousa again. My bandmates prefer the sousa for the spectacle of the thing, but I much prefer my concert horn because I feel better playing it, and because of that, ultimately I think it sounds better. I'm happy to play sousa in general, but I am becoming increasingly frustrated with it because of how much better my Eastman plays.

My question is this: should I be thinking about an adjustment to my current sousa, or an entirely different horn—or is this just the deal with sousas? I understand that it is fundamentally a different beast and I'm not concerned about my tone or anything else on the sousa. It really just comes down to ease of play. In a perfect world, I want a sousa that feels as good to play as my Eastman. Does that exist?

As we all know, sousas aren't always readily available to try out, so I have limited experience with sousas in general. I own two (the other is a Barcone "baby sousa" that is fun, but lacks the oomph I want, and has more quirks than I generally want to deal with), and I played a few school issued ones back in the 1990's in high school. That's it.

I should also mention that I'm almost 50, and am only 5'3" so light is best for my continued ability to gig on sousa (hence the carbon fiber bell on a fiberglass sousa!) :) Any thoughts/advice/suggestions would be welcomed.

[Eric Murphy]

If your current sousaphone isn't centering pitches as well as you would like, it sounds to me like there may be an issue that needs repaired. A King sousaphone should not be difficult to center pitches on. I would be suspicious of leaks, loose braces, or loose pistons. If all of that is fine it could simply not be a good fit for you. In my experience, my sousaphones play every bit as well as my concert tubas. They have been thoroughly checked for leaks, all the braces are firmly in place, and I have rebuilt the valves when needed. If everything is put together correctly with proper tolerances, there is no reason a sousaphone should not perform every bit as well as a concert tuba.

[Schlitzz]

I agree with Eric. I have two open wrap, single, double valve sections on my Bach 50. Butler made the CF bell, and I added a dual bore Bach length CF outer for the slide. Changing the valves, wraps, and bracing made the horn easier to handle, and is balanced for ME.

Hope you can make it work. Butler makes GREAT toys. Good luck!!!

[donn]

Also ... I've seen guys dissatisfied with their sousaphones for issues that no one else perceived, because the sousaphone player is in the worst place to hear what's going on.

I've wondered whether the single thing that separates a sousaphone acoustically from its other tuba relatives, is the leadpipe. Not really a serious idea, but if someone were nutty enough to replace that contraption with a leadpipe constructed with the kind of attention tuba leadpipes normally get, it would be interesting to see if it made a difference.

[Climbingoddess]

Thanks for the insights, everyone! I will take it to the shop and see if they can make it play a little better! :)

[iiipopes]

I regret you are having souzy issues. I actually prefer my souzy, a 36K rebuilt by Lee Stofer with my suggested modifications including upper valve loops converted to moveable slides to fine-tune intonation in an outdoor community band setting, extra water keys, and Lee's upgrades, especially on how to attach the brass to the 'glass.

First, check everything as Eric set forth above. Souzys generally have hard lives and need more attention.

Then here is what I did to make the transition back and forth from tuba to souzy easier: similar valve bore and leadpipe length. I wanted a 36k souzy for years but needed a concert tuba first. So, I purchased my Jupiter JTU1110 because it has a similar valve bore and leadpipe length. With the tubing modifications on the souzy, the two horns play very similar,ly indeed, albeit with some intonation variances as would be with any two horns of differing construction.

Your Eastman has essentially the same valve bore as a King souzy, with a similar length lead pipe. Your transitions back and forth from tuba to souzy should be straightforward. King souzys with their smaller valve bore can have bell issues, because the King factory matched bells to bugles at the factory for evenness of tone and response. And this despite a King souzy being relatively mouthpiece insensitive. I know the Butler bells are expensive, but I have to ask if the transition is any better or worse with the original bell.

Moreover, do you use the same mouthpiece with both the tuba and the souzy? If not, I recommend a safari to find a mouthpiece you are equally at home with on both. I tried the two-mouthpiece approach for several years and started having similar transition issues as you describe. I finally found a mouthpiece that functions very well indeed on both my tuba and my souzy. So I stick with that one and practice, practice, practice.

Now, with all this accomplished, for me the choice as to which to play is merely a preference issue to the type and location of whatever gig I am playing; and I can use both the tuba and souzy interchangeably and have fun whatever the gig.