Posted by phil sloffer on January 20, 1999 at 11:52:48:
In Reply to: Sousaphone to Helicon (?) posted by Santos on January 19, 1999 at 19:06:10:
I did this recently with a BBb Martin sousaphone and an Eb bell I had from a junk horn. I first wrapped a string around the pieces where the joint is to see if things were even close. I then unsoldered the joint on the sousaphone and removed the elbow. At that point I just stuck the bell into the hole and tried it to see where the pitch was. It worked. I then wrapped a string around the end of the elbow to get the exact size of that piece. I took that string to the bell and wrapped it around the bell. I measured down from the rim of the bell to the string and then repeated the all the way around. I scribed a line around the bell and rechecked the mearsurements several times. I took a break, ate lunch, came back and checked the measurements again. When I was sure I sat down with a hack saw and sawed off the bell on the line I had made. After that I cleaned things up and soldered it all together, braced it as best I could with what I had. The horn plays fine. I use it for dixieland.