Oops, I bought a Helicon!

[Sousaswag]

Sometimes things just pop up in your backyard... I don't particularly need it, but I didn't pay much money for it, and now I have something to use when I'm outside, at basketball band, alumni band, etc, that I don't need to worry about. I've quietly been looking for a sousaphone or helicon that I didn't have to pay much money for. I found one.

Pan-American (Conn) 30K, maybe. BBb, 3 valves. Valves are worn-ish, but I've seen worse. Could use a rebuild.

The body is in remarkably dent free condition. No cracks, patches, broken solder joints, braces, nothing. The bell rim has one wavy spot, but I think I can fix that pretty easily on my own. It's also clean.

OR...

I could try and find a 40K valve section to graft onto it. That would be very exciting. More likely, I'll find a cheapo 36K with better valves and I'll just put that on.

[
Before I took it home

[
Whew! That patina!

[
After I polished it up, drowned it in tarn-x, put my old sousaphone pads on it (I knew I kept those around for a reason)

It's pretty much exactly the size of a Conn 14K. It plays okay, I put some thicker oil on the valves and that helped. Fun horn!

[arpthark]

I saw that and noticed it got snapped up fairly quickly. Careful, these things have a tendency to multiply and eventually you’re wondering why you have to sort through six pre-war Eb tubas to get to your snowblower…

[Sousaswag]

I didn’t pay the listed price either… VERY fair for what it is, and in the condition it’s in.

The seller actually has an old Conn 40K too, which was a beast of a sousaphone. I’d never seen or played one in person. What a treat!

[Tubajug]

Nice work on cleaning that up! Is it 0.734 bore? I converted a Pan American sousaphone into a helicon, but it is a 0.687 bore. I thought it was 0.734 like a 14K, but it plays quite nicely.

Congrats on the helicon! I've always thought they were "cooler" than sousaphones. They seem to turn more heads, for sure!

[Sousaswag]

@Tubajug I think it's .734. It's almost identical to the 14K/36K sousaphones save for the bell.

[MiBrassFS]

This kind of stuff happens to me all the time. I call them “purchases of opportunity.” Glad to hear I’m not the only one!

I don’t need it and I’m not necessarily looking for it, but it follows me home!

Looks like a real nice instrument!

[Mary Ann]

I saw that and noticed it got snapped up fairly quickly. Careful, these things have a tendency to multiply and eventually you’re wondering why you have to sort through six pre-war Eb tubas to get to your snowblower…

My trumpet playing friend, who himself has an amazing number of LPs in his collection, clearly wonders at my stable; he was around for my very first tuba, was instrumental in getting me going when I got the 183, and now can't keep track of what is what. Four tubas, three Bb euphonium pitch instruments, one horn, one cornet, one bass trombone -- something here is definitely multiplying. I just tell him you cannot own too many brass instruments.

[gocsick]

I just tell him you cannot own too many brass instruments.

That's what I keep telling my wife... She is skeptical to say the least.

[WC8KCY]

What a beauty! I'd love to give that a test play.

FWIW, I have a Pan American alto sax with nearly-identical bell engraving.

[tubatodd]

I suppose this is a NHD (New Helicon Day) post. Love it! Congrats

[Yahnay-san]

Could be someone else's new helicon day if they are near LA:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235954513660?m ... media=COPY

Looks good, silver body and brass bell is either a feaure or a bug depending on your preferences.

I have a similar horn that I like a lot, though it wants to be sharp!

[Tom C]

I had one very similar to the OP's. The smaller bell seemed to produce a more focused sound than the typical sousaphone.

[Tubeast]

What I simply can´t wrap my head around with these things is the obviously wrong valve placement.
Correct me if I´m wrong, and bear with me:

Let´s say the valve set were a watch dial, valve #2 were its center and "12" were straight up.
If #1 were the minute- and #3 were the hour hand, the OP´s first pic would show roughly 7:05 (yeah, not quite, but you get the idea)

When worn, the bell will point to the front-left, slightly upwards, at angles less steep than shown in the pics.
That means a clockwise rotation by some angle compared to the photos.
If 12 o´clock remains straight up, that shifts the "valve-time" to 8:10, at the least.

A SHORT AND SLIM human wearing this thing may have the bottom bow resting against their belt.
In that position, they can reach the valves with their forearm about parallel to the ground.
In that position, MOST index- and ring fingers are aligned at a vertical line, so "finger-time" would be about 6 o´clock, already NOT matching "valve time".

Most tuba players are neither short nor slim, though, so a combination of long spine, broad shoulders and wide (errrm... non-existant) neck brings the bottom bow way above the waistline.
Their elbows will go further down relative to the horn, so their forearm will point upwards to reach the valves.
THEIR "finger time" would be 4:50-ish rather than "valve time" of 8:10. That´s an offset of about 90 degrees !

Result: I´m forced to operate valve #3 with my palm close to my wrist, because I can´t contort my wrist far enough to reach all valves with finger tips.
I know, this setup was invented 1.3 centuries ago, has remained the same ever since, and there were no such things as "applied ergonomics" back then.

But how come atrocities like these STILL survive modern board-of-design meetings?

I´m afraid only the Blokes and Dan Oberlohs of this world would be able to
a) solve the mystery why tuba designers keep messing this up and
b) have the crafting skills to correct the wrongs upon creating their pieces of art by resurrecting scrap metal...

[MiBrassFS]

Of course, when these were common, humans were shorter and slimmer, including tuba players…

[Sousaswag]

I mean, ALL Conn sousaphones are set up identically as far as valve placement. I’m very tall, slim, with long back and long arms, and I manage just fine.

I will say though, if I’m thinking of it correctly, the Olds/Reynolds sousaphones mount the valves more “straight up” than the Conns do. Instead of the upper first slide pointing mostly in front of you on those horns, it seems to point up towards the bell more, fwiw.

[Yahnay-san]

Ergonomics may vary by your body configuration, but the Conn Helicon I have is a good 6 pounds lighter than my King Sousaphone, so one must choose sore wrist or a sore back!