First Tuba Overhaul

Alright!! SO, Being a repair Technician, and a Tubist, I do work on tubas from time to time... 

okay... 

More more than just time to time...

A LOT

So lets take a journey to my first Tuba overhaul:

So this Is one of two, Count em TWO Sousaphones I worked on for a local High School.

Pictured here is a King 1250 Symphony Model Sousaphone That was found in the schools basement. 

What is interesting is that this horn had an original 27" Bell, while it was only advertised with a 22"

Meaning, this was a bit of a custom order (And to those skeptics, Bell had matching SN.)

Before the work, and after an ultrasonic cleaning (Slides and valves not Pictured)

 Here is the original Catalog Listing for the horn.

So this Started off as just a dent job (Cleaning, polishing, and using Magnetical Dent removal Systems to remove as many dents as possible without taking the horn apart)

As you can see above, this is not how it went. 

Once I got into looking at the horn, it became clear that the 2nd Branch (Bottom Bow) was not soldered together on one side; the 80+ year old solder had given up and let go.

NOW. Any good repair Tech know that to properly clean out a solder joint, and do a good job fixing the brace, is to take apart and clean it off by hand. 

(can be done without taking it apart, but that's neither here nor there)

SO off it came, and while it was off I decided to do an AWESOME job on the dents, just for kicks.

OUCH

THEN THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENED

Take a guess..

YUP!!!

More broken Solder Joints!!

So I went from having a two piece sousaphone (Bell and body) To a complete pile of parts in a matter of an hour.

So what happened??

Well, the Solder being a old and brittle as it was, had been shaken apart by the dent work, and little by little started to crumble. But was this a bad thing??

NO

I got to some very clean dent work, and bring an amazing instrument back to life.

In progress.

The horn was BY FAR one of the best playing and best sounding Sousaphones I have ever played. And what a joy it was to work on. I still get to check on it and it's counterpart at the Sacramento Tuba Christmas, and what a joy it is to know that (at least for now) it doesn't ever have to sit and be forgotten in a basement ever again.

Finished Product, and Yes, that is me (Handsome huh?)

If you have any questions you can reach me at:

Thattubaguy@live.com

Sums up this blog pretty well I'd say.

At last!

At last I have created a blog (that I actually intend on updating weekly at the very least).

I've had A LOT of people ask me to make some place where they can see all of the horns I've owned and played, being that I manage to get this cool stuff in my hands almost monthly it seems.

Sadly, a lot of what I'll be posting about are horns I no longer own, but are waaaaaaayyyy cool.

I also plan on posting whatever random instrument things I can find, and also some things from my life. (Tubas aren't the only thing I do ya know!)

SO! Stick around, have a drink, and welcome to the Confessions of a Tuba Player.