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looking for a set of finger buttons fitting a Besson 967 or Besson 981 (they're interchangeable)

I really do not want to pay what Mead wants to charge me (including shipping).

I've never had those Besson buttons in the palm of my hand, but - in the online pics - they look a lot like Yamaha (but - more properly - the other way around).

If (??) Besson threads are SAE, the Yamaha metric thread is about the closest there is to 8-32 (M4 x .75) and I've always been able to - with care - tease Yamaha finger buttons into 8-32 threaded stems.

If you don't like the real m.o.p. inserts, the size is easy to match (blah-blah mm diameter) by looking around online for pimped-up inserts (I've already linked a search showing some misc. blue m.o.p. disks.)

The finger buttons which came with the Dillon 981S are too big. They have too much surface area. When I put the 967 finger buttons on it, and to quite a line from super troopers, they feel all nimbly bimbly.

I could care less about the white MOP. My plans are to make them Pink.

As far as screwing Yamaha buttons onto it. I’ll have to experiment. Just don’t want to pay 170.00 for four just to pay someone else to add new MOP and spend another 200.

Take a look at someone's model 621 Yamaha buttons and see if they look like something you would like. They are the same on all three lengths of 621 tubas. If you are concerned about the threads, I sort of forgot that you were talking about a Chinese tuba. I'm thinking that - if it's Chinese - there's a chance that the stem threads are going to be M4 x 0.7 (and maybe not 8x32)...??
I've never been successful teasing Yamaha M4 x .75 'buttons into stems that are M4 x .70. If Dillon could supply you with a SECOND set of stems - and you ALSO like Yamaha buttons, you could chase the threads in the spare stems and change them from .7O to .75. (I hate telling someone to permanently change something on original parts of their instruments.)

Thread taps on eBay are still probably only about 6 or 7 bucks.

The 967 buttons work amazing on the Dillon. I contacted JPacker in the UK and their replacement finger buttons appear to be the same size.

If this is the case I'll put the JP's on the Dillon and the 967s will go back to their proper place (My euph is mad at me.. First the Eb comes into the house and now I'm strip mining it for parts.)

WARNING !!! SIDEBAR !!!

re: strip mining

My Dad (b. 1916) grew up in southeast Kansas, where a tremendous amount of (for others: near-the-surface) coal strip-mining was done. Some of it was done right in town and the occasionally dug "up under" - rather than just digging a hole. Sometimes, a house would fall in.

They claimed that the strip pits ruined the environment forever, but the (basically rectangular holes) became ponds, and the area is now an amazing fishing/quail-hunting/everything-else-hunting area (as all of those ponds attract so much wildlife.

bloke wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 11:37 am WARNING !!! SIDEBAR !!!

They claimed that the strip pits ruined the environment forever, but the (basically rectangular holes) became ponds, and the area is now an amazing fishing/quail-hunting/everything-else-hunting area (as all of those ponds attract so much wildlife.

Around here, life is a sidebar. Right @bloke ? LOL.

Good thing we're not environmental scientists. We'd all be in trouble.