Posted by Lee Stofer on March 27, 2002 at 09:59:58:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Which Sousas for High School Marching? posted by Sousas don't change on March 27, 2002 at 08:09:20:
The 20K has survived with small changes, and the King 2350 design has been around for a long time, but, since 1986, the Conn 14K is no longer a Conn at all but basically identical to the King. As above-mentioned, the King is bad for those of us that are 6' tall and 200lbs, for the main tuning slide always left a bruise in my rib cage. On the other hand, an smaller person would probably suffer with one of the Conn 20K sousaphones that I so enjoy. By the way, the F at the bottom of the staff is just fine if you support it. I'd suggest having a variety of sousaphones. My high school had Kings and Conns, and the smaller players had the Kings while the "big boys" played the 20K's.
As far as the feel of the short-action valves, I'd suggest un-doing something UMI has done to the design. Instead of using cork, UMI has put a little metal clip on the valve stem and a single felt sits on top of that. If you remove the clip and replace it with a cork washer of proper thickness, it will be set-up like the originals and feel better. In fact, I have used all cork and no felt on 20K valves, and the feel is more solid yet. The valves are not noisy that way, and you can get great technique.
-Lee Stofer