Posted by Gus Pratt on January 13, 2000 at 06:53:52:
In Reply to: really dumb idea but FYI, anyway posted by the unknown hacksawman on January 13, 2000 at 00:25:34:
I don't think everything you said was that dumb of an ideal. The idea of keeping it in tune with bits is though. I was looking at a King sousaphone on eBay and thinking basically the same thing, except I was thinking you could add a tuning slide where the first loop after the valve section is. The King sousaphone on eBay has a detachable valve section (similar to Yamaha tubas). If a person had a sousaphone and wanted to add a 4 valve section, they could have custom braces put on both their tuba and sousaphone and swamp the valve section back as needed saving the need for having to have two good valve section. With the price of rebuilding valves so expensive it would certainly be cheaper to find a sousaphone with a bad valve section, but not very dented and remove the valve section (making it detachable) from a 4 valve front action tuba of similar bore and brand, then to find a 4 valve sousaphone and have the valves overhauled.