old trashed h n white king silver sousaphone

[bloke]

is no longer trashed. It's 10:30, and I'm going to go to bed.

There are six more (smaller) instruments to "do" for this rush job before 5:00 p.m. on Monday. I have no idea why they need them by then, but everything else is a walk in the park compared to this one, so...

Oh yeah, I charged them pretty good.

[bloke]

I managed to finagle the lower mouthpipe off of a 20K (for the same school as King) while leaving the receiver and the receiver braces all in place (tricky, but it sure saves a hell of a lot of time). Once I had it off the instrument, I removed a couple of dents from the lower mouthpipe tube, brazed a crack shut that was an inch long (who knows how long it would take to get another lower mouthpipe for a 20K from Conn-Selmer) brazed a crack on the other side of it that was about a quarter inch long, and then finagled it back in place. The main slide was crazy stuck, but I managed to get it out without tearing up the horn, and then I removed a bunch of body dents. Checking back over everything, I discovered a busted socket flange , so I got rid of it , bent the quarter inch rod sideways, slipped a new one on, bent the rod back into position, and soldered the new socket flange in place... another shortcut
This one was a bunch easier than the King, and they both go back to the same school. After that, I had four more to do; they were all smaller marching brass which I could re-solder and remove dents from them while mostly sitting down. Everything's ready for Monday. They need all of this by 5:00 a.m., but they'll get them by 9:00 a.m.

[bort2.0]

Everything's ready for Monday.

Way to go!

They need all of this by 5:00 a.m., but they'll get them by 9:00 a.m.

Stick it to 'em! I'll be 4 hours late if I want and you're gonna like it.

[bloke]

The only suck thing is that - when we get to the school this morning - we are going to stick a new 30 inch continuous / piano hinge on one of their molded MTS sousaphone cases. (How the hell do you completely lose a 30-in long hinge off of an MTS sousaphone case without tearing up the rest of the case?) I bought the hinge (I couldn't believe they had them in stock in the correct length for this) a couple of days ago when I was in our rural county Ace Hardware Store. Shockingly, it was cheap. The suck part of it is that I've run out of so-called peel rivets, which are very convenient type of pop rivet which doesn't require a backup washer, so I'm going to have to use regular pop rivets and backup washers, which - if you think about trying to deal with the giant clam shaped sousaphone case - will be a nightmare.. but whatever.

Mrs bloke will help, which will make it at least possible.

I wasn't planning on doing this stuff this weekend, obviously, but this school system gives us a lot of good business, actually buys new stuff from us, and pays promptly. I'll be selling them four more JP sousaphones very soon.

[bloke]

I found pics (forgotten) that I sent to the band director who was concerned that I wouldn't have them back in time (whatever... )

KING: (combination of H.N. White 1250 body and later-era (two-piece) 2350 bell)
The 2nd branch (large, on the bottom of the instrument) of this King was all smushed it, so I un-soldered the guard wire (about 2/3 of the way from the large end towards the small end) smoothed it all out (partially on the dent machine - with that guard wire floppin' around), and stuck it back on. there were also other bad dents, missing parts, A FUBAR bell (notice half-ass shine job), and valve caps which (apparently) hadn't been off in decades, and were seized with lime. Surprisingly, the pistons rate a B-. I'm thinking that I also replaced the neck receiver and fixed the creased (and cracked - brazed with silver solder to repair) neck - as well as a 2-minute improvised fab. (bent brass rod with two flat areas ground into each end) neck brace.




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Conn unfortunate-era short-action:
I also worked in this funky (Eastlake, with the stick-on guard wire) 20K for the same school. I removed the lower mouthpipe (leaving the receiver in place with it's b.s. "arch" brace) removed a big dent and a bad crease, silver-brazed this crack shut (along with a shorter on on the other side) - leaving a bunch of extra material there for added strength, and wired this little trim in place, so the heat from silver brazing wouldn't un-solder it. This one was also sorta beat-up, but (being stupid-thin - per at least the last three decades of manufacturing of these) it wasn't too difficult to smooth back out.



In the real world of blokeplace, this is what I spend most of my time doing...fixing badly toe-up (read: "torn-up") sh!t that (both) others probably cannot (and) probably wouldn't wish to fix. ...but I'm PDQ at this crap, and don't have to pay any attention to it while I'm doing it (after all these years), and can listen to the radio or think pleasant thoughts, etc...and hell no (other than a quick pass at a bell interior - to knock off light tool marks and to check my work) I don't shine up crap like this after I fix it...They did NOT hand it to ME shiny... ...plus, they asked me to come get these on a Friday (didn't bring them out to me) and asked me if I could bring them back (PLUS four OTHER instruments they handed to me) by Monday afternoon, so...