Posted by Matt on June 12, 2003 at 08:29:20:
In Reply to: Holton sousaphone posted by mikemay on June 12, 2003 at 07:51:36:
I have seen a Holton Sousaphone from as late as possibly the mid to late eighties. I remember the bore being a little smallish and the horn in general was a little smaller than average. The intonation was decent for a sousa and the horn had a decent sound probably a little brighter than a Conn 14K but not as colorful as a King. I remember it being heavy for it's size. At the college I was at we had one and one Conn 14k and about 15 Yamahas (lucky me)in addition to the Holton. I put the weakest players on the Conn and the Holton because it was easier for them to get a characteristic sound on those as opposed to the Yamaha. All of the other players and myself used the Yamaha for a more "homogenous" sound. I will say however, Yamahas are not very consistent sousas in my opinon and the newer ones aren't as good as the late eighties/early nineties versions before they changed the leadpipe placement. The older ones were a bit lighter and suspect to damage but better sounding. The Holton was built very well and had a good amount of bracing. Because I assigned it to one of the weaker players, they also seemed to take better care of it and after years and years of use it still looked pretty good. I remeber the lacquer being almost that King "orange" colored lacquer and very, very thick. But it may have been refurbished to that shape and new lacquer reapplied. At the time I didn't have much interest into finding out the vintage of the horn.
To answer your question directly, it probably wasn't a stencil, and they were decent horns. IMO, most manufacturers, with the exception of Besson, made sousas that were probably better playing, on average, than most of there other tubas.
Matt G