TubaForum.net

As most threads are about sexy/super-custom/looks-like-it-was-never-damaged stuff, I like to post about stuff that was horribly torn up but "fixed".

Some children (not all, obviously) continue to destroy instruments worse than ever.

I believe the favorite thing for children to do (who play sousaphones) is to try to remove the necks without loosening the tension screws. I believe this is because they are physically (lacking finger strength) unable to loosen the tension screws - that (sadly) combined with (quite a few of today's children) the illicit or prescribed use of substances which impede logical thought. Indeed, many adults (who mostly only type and drive) don't possess very much finger/wrist strength...and combine all of this with a child's lack-of-predicting-consequences mind, and destruction is inevitable.

Here's a LOWER mouthpipe tube from (in my opinion) a so-so-yet-high-priced (due to instruments being re-wholesaled to dealers in the USA - rather than bought straight from the factory) make of sousaphone. It was twisted completely flat and also bent.

I could have bought new, but I have been taught (via experience) to not rely on parts being in stock, and I've also found that the parts prices have become highfalutin. I really couldn't spend more than a half hour straightening out this part (and there is MUCH more to do...scrounging and replacing destroyed main-to-first-slide braces, as well as replacing mouthpipe receiver braces...so - using too many techniques to go into and working extremely fast - I self-imposed a time-limit "fix" this (a half hour)... I'm in for my second cup of coffee (and I have to HURRY to get this one done prior to leaving in an hour and a half for a LONG gig... but here is my definition of "good enough" for this part:







I've expressed quite a few opinions, here...but don't believe any of them to be based on misjudgement.

Don't forget -- HS kids tend to clutch onto the neck while holding the sousaphone, and the smaller the kid, the more they are trying to keep weight off their shoulders. And thus, putting a heck of a lot of strain on the neck

That, and endless jokes about the euphemism of "neck and bits". And flirting with the flute and clarinet players.

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 25, 2022 8:55 am Don't forget -- HS kids tend to clutch onto the neck while holding the sousaphone, and the smaller the kid, the more they are trying to keep weight off their shoulders. And thus, putting a heck of a lot of strain on the neck

That, and endless jokes about the euphemism of "neck and bits". And flirting with the flute and clarinet players.

yeah...I see that everywhere...along with "installing bells 90-degrees wrong".
I still have my sousaphone, and do neither of those things...but I'm a little older, I suppose.

GOOD NEWS (not soldered up, yet, but...) the receiver (with stuff laid together) LINES BACK UP WITH (what's left of) the receiver braces.

bloke "shower/clothes/horns/drive/gig/back home/finish this one, then: ONE MORE SOUSAPHONE tonight (the LAST one: ALL of the outer detachable braces are missing/destroyed), and this school is D-O-N-E DONE !!! ...only seven more schools to go..."

Then to get them to pay you in a timely manner.

York-aholic wrote: ↑Sat Jun 25, 2022 10:46 am Then to get them to pay you in a timely manner.

Hey I got paid for the gig, and this particular school has been good to me, which is why I grabbed their stuff as one of the first few schools to do.

It’s all back together, I found some California Olds narrow fixed valve set braces for the main tuning slide fixed braces (even though this make is more of a budget knock-off of King than it is of Olds), and tomorrow all I have left is one more of this same brand of sousaphone for this school… Those detachable braces that hold the valve set to the outer bows are all jacked on that one, but that is less of a deal than what I did today.
Mrs. bloke has a bass clarinet and one other instrument for that school, and then it’s done.