Posted by Klaus on August 23, 2001 at 19:40:47:
In Reply to: Need neck and bits for Eb Martin Sousa posted by Martin Owner on August 23, 2001 at 16:11:26:
Common wisdom seems to tell, that sousa bodies are better survivors than sousa necks.
Only two US makes within the same business conglomerate still produce sousaphones: Conn and King. Their accessory catalogue listing tells that they are supplying two models of sousa necks. One for the Conn 20K and one for all other Conns and Kings.
If one of these will fit your Martin you are lucky. Elsewise you will have to rethink your situation.
The most recent non-King-Conn rebuilding project presented to this board was one made by Joe Sellmansberger of Mid-South Music.
He combined the body of a York Eb sousa with the bell of York Monster Eb tuba into an extremely beautiful, but less than generic, York Eb helicon.
He had to make a new neck, which also fulfilled the function of the bits. Superb craftsmanship. Only I would have asked him to give the neck a wider, more barrelshaped, profile, had he done the job for me.
Joe and I have taken quite a number of fights on this board. That they have been done in a mutual and humouristic respect might have been one of our well kept secrets. Considering the often somewhat rough wordings.
Joe is haunted by a triple or even quadruple curse: He could make, and does make, a living as the highly qualified repairman and reconstructor of brass instruments, that he actually is. He could make a living as a musician. He could make a living of teaching at an academic level, a carrier which he had taken up, but had to turn down in the light of his other businesses. And he has just lost an important employé to the very same academia.
All this to say, that Joe would be a sample to follow, but he might not have gotten the time to help you out.
And the one other guy, that I know happens to have a solution for your problem in his far, far out western winds is most likely in the same situation of shortage, when it comes to hours of the day.
As I will give you a number of links, they will have to be in a primitive "enter-them-yourself" incarnation.
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/apr2001/messages/52438.html
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/aug2001/messages/64650.html
http://www.unitedmusical.com/default.htm
Concerning the latter link, you will have to go to the sidebar for the proper page. And then to go for the right pdf download clicking.
After all you might live closer to a solution through a facial rebuild, than to one through a qualified brass reconstruction.
From the twentyish Conn side of the Sousa Avenue
Klaus