Posted by Jim Andrada on May 16, 2003 at 16:09:49:
In Reply to: Re: Painful Sousaphone Design posted by dp on May 16, 2003 at 09:35:29:
Well, maybe I'm a bit strange (or maybe there's no "maybe" about it) but I always liked the Sousaphone I had in high school. It was as I recall a rather humongous Buescher that the band had had for maybe 20 years or so. But since the band had been around 140 folks large and had gone to around 50 or so, the horn had probably sat around in the storage room for most of its existence so it was in nice shape. And since there was no demand for it the band director let me use it for almost 15 years until I moved away rather than just stuff it back in the storage closet.
I played it in a couple of local bands and a VFW band. About the only time I didn't like it was around the end of the day on the 4th of July when we had played two long parades and an outdoor evening bandstand concert. But we did get paid for our trouble - I think the total was $19 per person for the day. We also got paid a few bucks each for bandstand concerts in various parks on the weekends. It was a LONG time ago - I think Dale might have still been a cute little kid just out of diapers!
I think I made enough schlepping the Sousie around all summer to pay for my college textbooks so I had no complaints - lots of good memories. And no permanent back problems.