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Glad we had sousaphones when i was in marching band. Probably sounds great , but I wonder about the ergonomics. Love that 1241 bugle and bell stack.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/314265180228?m ... media=COPY

No wonder they stopped making them, somebody put a piston on the wrong side.

You dont' have to wonder about the ergonomics, they are even worse that it looks. the weight is centered all wrong, there are very few good places to grab it, and the 4th valve isn't angled right; you have to push it in with your whole arm as the valve is angled up instead of down away from you.

they sounded good, but just a nightmare to move.

There is *no* window to the left. These were dumped because they are bell-heavy and dreadful to hold up *and* you cannot see anything at all to the left, so marching is a challenge with these. Great tubas, though.

The updated version (1151) is a lot more like the old two-valved GG K-90 bugles, with a clear window to the left and much better balance. They also play well, but I like these better, though I would balk hard at marching with one. It also has a goofy valve for the left hand, but it works a lot better.

Here is an old GG K-90 of mine, next to my Holton 345 before all the surgery and the removal of the silver plate. (I took this in like 2008.)



The listed horn was an attempt to capitalize on the rep of the old K-90 but it ended up being one of those things botched as a committee effort. I think the later 1151 I linked to up above this was because someone at King (and probably Wayne Downey) tried to go back to what worked so well with the bugle, and start over from that perspective. The 1151 even has the Blue Devils' "spring" braces on the bell.

Here is a much better photo of the disorganized mess that is the King 1141 marching tuba.

Nope. No way. Good tuba, but a killer to carry around for 12 hours a day…

I wouldn’t mind the valve cluster and small tubing for a project of mine by Florida is a little far for me.

How is one expected to swing that thing to and fro whilst lifting their spats-donned feet to The Sound Of Philadelphia?

York-aholic wrote: ↑Wed Dec 14, 2022 6:14 am I wouldn’t mind the valve cluster and small tubing for a project of mine by Florida is a little far for me.

I was gonna say, this tuba could make a killer concert horn.

I think Norm Epley might’ve done something to that tune.

Note that 1st valve is at the BOTTOM and to rework this cluster would be a 100% rebuild. The cluster is also very high up in that position. However, these horns use the same bell (the 1151 is one-piece, the 1141 is two-piece, but the collar was deleted for a ferrule, while the old K-90 used the 2341 19" bell and bottom bow) and outer branches as the old concert tuba, so yes, if you wanted to completely rebuild the valve section it would make a very good concert tuba. (The K-90 used a very long/open wrap, so what would be the top bow comes all the way up to the bell, and this makes the horn play differently from the 2341, 1141, and 1151. You can melt steel with one of those old contras. ;-)

I am currently working on turning one of the K-90s into a concert horn. the layout will be like this…

Those things are so awful. The "new" Yamaha is pretty much the last word in contras, the non convertible one. Way easier to move see and throw around, and imo the 4th valve is not worth a dime out on the field. the King sound is missed but really you need the King baritones alongside and they have their problems too. I don't think anything but Yamaha is worth the sweat to play contra.

King K-90

I'm just sayin'

Conn-Selmer - it seems to me, in the last couple of decades - has decided to mass produce (basically "frankentubas") rather than build jigs to manufacture any new parts.

Sort of like Kanstul trying to force concert tuba designs out of that marching piston set they used for everything. That was a mistake on their part.

the elephant wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 12:58 pm Sort of like Kanstul trying to force concert tuba designs out of that marching piston set they used for everything. That was a mistake on their part.

And not producing the one tuba everyone wanted.

LargeTuba wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 5:44 pm

the elephant wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 12:58 pm Sort of like Kanstul trying to force concert tuba designs out of that marching piston set they used for everything. That was a mistake on their part.

And not producing the one tuba everyone wanted.

What was the one that everyone wanted? I was sort of away from the tuba world when Kanstul bit the dust.

arpthark wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 7:37 pm

LargeTuba wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 5:44 pm

the elephant wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 12:58 pm Sort of like Kanstul trying to force concert tuba designs out of that marching piston set they used for everything. That was a mistake on their part.

And not producing the one tuba everyone wanted.

What was the one that everyone wanted? I was sort of away from the tuba world when Kanstul bit the dust.

They should have made a copy of the CSO 6/4 York. 6/4 Ebs, 4/4 BBbs, and 3/4 F’s don’t sell very well.

LargeTuba wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 7:49 pm

arpthark wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 7:37 pm

LargeTuba wrote: ↑Wed Dec 21, 2022 5:44 pm

And not producing the one tuba everyone wanted.

What was the one that everyone wanted? I was sort of away from the tuba world when Kanstul bit the dust.

They should have made a copy of the CSO 6/4 York. 6/4 Ebs, 4/4 BBbs, and 3/4 F’s don’t sell very well.

True, and they could've done that before the current glut of widely available Yorkophones (Eastman 836, ZO, Wessex Chicago).

You don't need 4 valves on a marching horn, heck you don't even need 3. You don't even really need two piston valve, one on the thumb and a rotor on the left hand works just fine :) (See my avatar, me in 1979)