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I have an old 20k(1944? i think) and I want to get a vintage or just older set of bits so that they don't looks so out of place compared to the wear on the neck. not looking for anything in mint condition, just some older ones. Tarnished/scratched is not an issue. The neck has a medium/light amount of wear on it so keep that in mind. pm or reply with a price and picture if possible

Buy some new ones and send them to me...

Give me a couple of months to "vintage" them...

...I can quote you a price for this service.

free.99?? lol

seriously...??
If you REALLY want this...

Buy a new set of satin silver ones. (Vintage silver were ALL satin silver; none were bright silver.)
Buff all the way through the silver on both in a few spots.
Buff the rest of their surfaces to knock the satin finish down to "less-satin-y".
Put them individually in a plastic milk jug with a bunch of small tacks in it and shake it hard for about a minute.

No. This isn't a joke.

I was more joking. I don’t really feel like spending money on brand new bits(big part of it). The bits I currently have are some weird knock off ones that don’t really fit right and are also not brass(I think). They were painted a shiny gold and then lacquered on top(admittedly very well). Kinda looks like nickel? has that same hue that the outer slides on Yamaha sousaphones have.

If I really wanted that authentic wear I could always just buy a new pair and give it to my local Highschool for about 4 months and it would also do the trick

Yeah. As the price of all that type of stuff is skyrocketed, people who have a spare or two tend to be holding on to that stuff. I'm even taking Conn sousaphone bits - whereby half of them are in good shape, unsoldering them, and putting two good halves together to make one good bit.

bloke wrote: ↑Tue Dec 19, 2023 12:49 pm Yeah. As the price of all that type of stuff is skyrocketed…

Crazy how much the price has changed in just a couple of years. I was lucky enough to find my 20k(nicknamed Mitas) by mere coincidence and the guy sold it to me for $75(crazy as that may seem). Was going to be a wall hanger in a bar.

I was going over some of my old TubeNet posts and I sold a silver spare bit I had for $8 back in 2016.

arpthark wrote: ↑Tue Dec 19, 2023 2:12 pm I was going over some of my old TubeNet posts and I sold a silver spare bit I had for $8 back in 2016.

I just paid $85 for a new set of brass bits, that were sold as genuine Conn parts but I pretty sure are knock offs. They are slightly different than my old ones and seem to get stuck together much easier, like the taper isn't quite right. Unfortunately I couldn't return them because I couldn't find any others in stock!

gocsick wrote: ↑Tue Dec 19, 2023 11:52 pm

arpthark wrote: ↑Tue Dec 19, 2023 2:12 pm I was going over some of my old TubeNet posts and I sold a silver spare bit I had for $8 back in 2016.

I just paid $85 for a new set of brass bits, that were sold as genuine Conn parts but I pretty sure are knock offs. They are slightly different than my old ones and seem to get stuck together much easier, like the taper isn't quite right. Unfortunately I couldn't return them because I couldn't find any others in stock!

I had an issue recently where I had an older Conn 36K sousaphone and I went to my local (not repair shop) music store to bite the bullet and order modern 36K bits. It turns out that modern 36Ks are actually just rebadged Kings and they take King bits, even though the bits are touted as "genuine Conn" or some such. So it's possible that you got modern Conn 36K (read: King) bits instead.