King tuba/sousaphone pistons
King tuba/sousaphone pistons
Do King sousaphones share parts with King tubas. Specifically valve caps, pistons, stems, buttons or bell tenons. I picked up a few sousaphones missing parts. One is missing just the male bell tenon, main tuning slide, neck and bits. The other is missing all piston parts and the bell. I was thinking I might be able to buy an old beater King tuba and get a lot of the parts I need.
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bloke
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Re: King tuba/sousaphone pistons
The answer is yes.
Here's one issue:
With the VERY OLD King tubas and sousaphones, the #1 piston/casing porting was different, and - if that piston is missing - it becomes a nationwide search and scavenger hunt to find one of those pistons in good condition. I don't seem to be able to describe the difference (verbally) in how the #1 casing looks on the older instruments to people, but I'm going to try here again:
When looking straight on at the instrument, the left hand knuckle - which heads upward to the upper #1 slide - heads STRAIGHT up out of the casing, instead of having a bend in it (again: this knuckle is straight with the OLDER instruments).
With the exception of the #1 piston, the width of the upper #1 slide bow, and the main slide bow (all changed at the time that King moved from the 1XXX to the 2XXX model numbers), replacement parts can be bought new from ConnSelmer, or from dealers and repair shops (those which are willing to sell parts).
Here's one issue:
With the VERY OLD King tubas and sousaphones, the #1 piston/casing porting was different, and - if that piston is missing - it becomes a nationwide search and scavenger hunt to find one of those pistons in good condition. I don't seem to be able to describe the difference (verbally) in how the #1 casing looks on the older instruments to people, but I'm going to try here again:
When looking straight on at the instrument, the left hand knuckle - which heads upward to the upper #1 slide - heads STRAIGHT up out of the casing, instead of having a bend in it (again: this knuckle is straight with the OLDER instruments).
With the exception of the #1 piston, the width of the upper #1 slide bow, and the main slide bow (all changed at the time that King moved from the 1XXX to the 2XXX model numbers), replacement parts can be bought new from ConnSelmer, or from dealers and repair shops (those which are willing to sell parts).
- These users thanked the author bloke for the post (total 2):
- York-aholic (Tue Sep 30, 2025 7:14 pm) • Basses88 (Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:04 am)
Re: King tuba/sousaphone pistons
I actually had bought a box of old pistons off eBay a few years back and went through it and found what appear to be King pistons. The match the same diameter and same port locations. I was wandering when I was looking at some of them because I had to different port configurations for the number 1 pistons. I also discovered two different stem thread sizes.
bloke wrote: Tue Sep 30, 2025 8:18 am The answer is yes.
Here's one issue:
With the VERY OLD King tubas and sousaphones, the #1 piston/casing porting was different, and - if that piston is missing - it becomes a nationwide search and scavenger hunt to find one of those pistons in good condition. I don't seem to be able to describe the difference (verbally) in how the #1 casing looks on the older instruments to people, but I'm going to try here again:
When looking straight on at the instrument, the left hand knuckle - which heads upward to the upper #1 slide - heads STRAIGHT up out of the casing, instead of having a bend in it (again: this knuckle is straight with the OLDER instruments).
With the exception of the #1 piston, the width of the upper #1 slide bow, and the main slide bow (all changed at the time that King moved from the 1XXX to the 2XXX model numbers), replacement parts can be bought new from ConnSelmer, or from dealers and repair shops (those which are willing to sell parts).