Posted by Joe S. on November 20, 1999 at 01:58:23:
In Reply to: Conn Jumbo posted by David on November 19, 1999 at 08:31:39:
If you could borrow (or buy from Enco) a stainless steel dial caliper that measures in thousandths of an inch (There is a Chinese Enco 6" caliper that works fine for under $15.), you could measure the bore of your tuba and know whether standard "Elkhart"-bore slides would fit your super-fat-bodied sousa, or not.
The "standard" (both 14K "long action" and 20K [6/4-bodied] "short action") Conn sousas' bore size is .734" (That is: "seven hundred and thirty-four thousandths of an inch") If you determine that what you need is, indeed, this "standard" size, a lot of different people could help you out.
The other possibility that I could conceive of would be .770" bore, which was the bore size on the old 20J-24J and other "jumbo" detachable bell Conn tubas. You could still obtain some of this tubing, I think, because that is the bore size of the LARGE side of the 14K and 20K (20K is now back in production.) Conn sousaphones' main tuning slides. Obtaining "U"-crooks for Conn sousa slides of this bore size might be a bit of a trick, but you might luck into some Mirafone, Rudy Meinl, or Meinl Weston crooks that could have the same span as your old Conn sousa's missing slides. All three of those German companies make .770" bore instruments.
ŐK?...Good luck :-)