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If you had an old Conn model 20K "short-action" sousaphone (.734" bore) with worn-out pistons and casings, which would you choose to do?

{A} have your local repair shop remove the valve section, send it off to have it rebuilt, and reinstall it - for a total cost of $2XXX.

{B} hand your local repair shop the hanging-loose (yet basically perfect valves and good slides, along with a darn-good 5th branch) valve section from your old way-up-on-a-shelf chunk-missing-out-of-the-bell 36K Conn fiberglass sousaphone (.734" bore), have them install that valve section on the 20K - along with lengthening the main tuning slide the appropriate amount - for a few hundred dollars?...

...(basically ending up with a Conn model 38K.)

(I step into a large percentage of band instrument storage rooms with old torn-up (yet excellent valve sections) 36K fiberglass sousaphones up on high shelves - covered with dust...and economical [logical?] possibilities occur to me, which - to my own preference - would end up with more desirable valve systems than the "short-action" valve systems.)

Retired band director, but...
B. Was this a trick question?

Jperry1466 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 01, 2023 4:51 pm Retired band director, but...
B. Was this a trick question?

Some band directors are practical/reasonable/frugal.
Some other band directors believe that "short-action" valves are magic, and (regarding new purchases - along with really expensive repairs...and I'm barely changing the subject, but not much) don't get the fact that past craftsmen have retired/passed away, and don't mind spending a bunch of o.p.m (as I've expressed - a completely different topic - the brand that many seem to auto-choose), to get what (they believe that) they want.


I'm currently going through a nightmare with a band and director who bought new sousaphones (based on that model's legacy) - 'because' - after politely attempting (pre-purchase) to warn them off of those...ie. sending off new-this-year pistons for rebuilding - due to being oval on top and the factory remedy apparently having been to buff the nickel plating off the top, middle, and bottoms of the defective pistons...Last year, I purchased a complete set of replacement pistons for a one-year-old one of those, but - having encountered more problems with other brand-new ones - decided that 'expertly-rebuilt' would - with far less risk - solve problems, than buying roll-the-dice replacements from the manufacturer."

bloke "I'm getting faster-and-faster - as I'm getting older-and-older - at fixin' horns...but all these 'issues' are ALSO making it more-and-more difficult" (not to mention that NO one really wants to stock parts anymore...so (Dear another-repair-guy-who-posts-here-every-once-in-a-blue-moon,) don't just beat up on Chinese makes."

I am not a band director, but being a member of the freak jury, I felt I should comment and lend nothing to the conversation.

I, too, am a recovering public school band director, and I'm pretty sure that - at some point along the way - I may or may not do something or other, too.
Seriously, I have in the past had similar repairs and parts swaps done by my local repair man. I've also sometimes found it beneficial to trade a boatload of decrepit horns and mismatched parts to Taylor Music in Aberdeen in order to get several quality needed instruments in return. Trying to take care of O.P.M.
Tim