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Recently got my hands on a 1927 Buescher jumbo sousaphone and gave it a much needed polish(and which I didn’t finish doing because I got tired). It’s been named Apollo which I think is fitting for this horn.
30” bell, 0.770” bore, massive horn but extremely balanced somehow. Hopefully I’ll get the valves overhauled sometime in the future.

That’s a nice one!
It looks very similar to “Big Bertha” that I played in high school marching band.
Enjoy

I played one of these that they had at Dillon's a couple years ago.

Surprisingly easy to play, just big as all get out. Very cool horn, enjoy it!

Is this the one that was at Dillon’s for quite some time? Cool horn. I hope you can get the valves rebuilt or even replaced!

Sousaswag wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 6:54 am Is this the one that was at Dillon’s for quite some time? Cool horn. I hope you can get the valves rebuilt or even replaced!

Here is me with that Buescher:



I am a short guy (5'6") and it may be the camera angle, but that thing is/was enormous!

If it's the same horn, I think OP will be pleased. I was having a blast with it!

Probably 25 - 30 years ago (before sousaphones had become as popular to individual owners as they are today), I picked up one of those. The valves were leaky, and - at the time - I had more important things to do than send that valveset off to Anderson (along with misc. dent removal, cleaning, etc.)

A black man was in town for a friend's funeral, and showed up looking for an affordable sousaphone (second line/NOLA, etc.)

I told him the valves were leaky, but he could play it and decide if he wanted to buy it for $400 as is (adjusted for inflation - c. $1000)

I wasn't that excited about selling it that inexpensively (even though as-is), but schools wouldn't have been interested in it, and (pre-internet) the (limited, but - now - existing) "jumbo sousaphone" market (again) hadn't yet become a "thing".

internet:
Sousaphones are back.
Recording basses are back.
B-flat tubas are back.
(Were they ever NOT "back"?, and - simply - people were less connected...)

...I also - prior to that - picked up a barn-find FOUR-valve King "Giant".
I cleaned the black tarnish off with oven cleaner, shined up the silver, and sold it (EXPENSIVE shipping) to a guy in Hawaii - who was involved in one of those c. 1920's - 1930's "hotel"-style bands...ie. probably something like this:

Sousaswag wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 6:54 am Is this the one that was at Dillon’s for quite some time? Cool horn. I hope you can get the valves rebuilt or even replaced!

Yep!

Out of all the jumbos the buescher is my favorite. Largely because it is more ergonomic than the other jumbos, i.e. smaller and a lot of fun to play.
Cool horn!