Posted by Joe S. on April 18, 2001 at 01:40:42:
In Reply to: Need Reynolds Eb sousa neck posted by Dan Schultz on April 17, 2001 at 23:10:37:
Dan,
I don't think that S-W has any "factory" Reynolds Eb sousa mouthpipes.
If anyone in your town has an Olds or Reynolds sousa, see if the gooseneck fits your Eb and then see if (with tuning bits, if you have any or can borrow some Olds/Reynolds or Conn bits) it plays up to A=440.
If the BBb Olds/Reynolds gooseneck fits your EEb sousa and plays in tune, that is great news. If the Olds/Reynolds gooseneck fits your EEb sousa but plays flat, that is just a bit of a nuicance but solvable:
You would need (from Allied Supply)
- an Olds/Reynolds sousaphone upper mouthpipe male fitting ("raw" brass - unfinished)
- a Conn sousaphone upper mouthpipe "crook" (raw brass)
- either a Conn or an Olds/Reynolds sousa gooseneck (upper mouthpipe) mouthpiece receiver
- some sort of brace (' could be bent from brass rod) and perhaps a lyre holder (your discretion).
The Conn upper mouthpipe crook could be shortened (off of the large end) about 1&1/2 inches. By the time you chopped that much off of it, hopefully it would play up to A=440 and also be skinny enough (diameter-wise) to fit into the Olds/Reynolds upper mouthpipe male fitting for soldering. The rest of the "fab" job is "nuts-'n'-bolts" by any somewhat-experienced fixer guy.
Again, none of this described rigamarole is even necessary if a standard BBb Olds/Reynolds gooseneck (can be bought by your music store from Allied Supply) fits your instrument and plays up to pitch with tuning bits (btw: either "real" Olds/Reynolds or U.M.I. Conn tuning bits will fit an Olds/Reynolds gooseneck, but "real" Olds/Reynolds bits have a little more angle on them.)