Posted by Gus Pratt on August 11, 2003 at 11:23:59:
In Reply to: Re: CC sousaphone posted by Lee Stofer on August 10, 2003 at 19:52:28:
I agree with you on the King. I noticed that once with an old King that there is so much straight tubing both before and after the valve cluster. I did the measurements once and discovered that it was real close. The options that I recollect were best were 1. graft on a different valve set that would take a lead pipe that went straight into the valve cluster and then add a tuning slide afer the valve cluster, 2. graft on a King Eb 4 valve cluster and remove the small loop after the valve cluster, 3. remove all the extra straight tubing and a little bit of the tapered tubing.
I recently purchased a King BBb off eBay for $100 just for this purpose. Now I just have to wait for an old King Eb 4 banger. I actually plan on being able to get 2 CC sousaphones out of the 2 horns, by swapping valvesets and the tubing just after the valveset. There may be a little cutting here and there but not much.
My frankenstein sousa I made just to get some practice. I never intended on it being a serious horn, but now that I know what can be done I plan on making a serious CC sousaphone.
Again, pictures of my CC sousaphone can be seen at http://community.webtv.net/guspratt/ccsousaphone