I learned to play tuba on the 3-valve version with the same swiveling bell. I have fond memories of carrying it home on the school bus without a case. I wish someone had taken pictures. I'm sure it was a comical sight since the tuba was almost as big as me.

Thanks for this video. I bought a 20J a couple months ago, and I was wondering how to remove the valves for cleaning and oiling. On eBay I saw an advertisement for valve caps and realized the ring is separate from the rest of the cap. However, your video gave me 'the rest of the story'. These are marvelous instruments, and I'm relieved to read the comments of others that show EVERYONE else finds these instruments heavy, not just me (a skinny 145 lb 70 y/o)!

My band director bought me a 20j in high school. It's now 50 years later and I still play one. I also have a 21j in case I want the upright bell. Both are beat up pretty bad, but play great. Every so often, I dream of having them refurbished, but probably never will due to my fixed income in retirement.

I have a 24j that by the serial number was built in 1952. I bought it from my high school in 1992 when they were unloading a bunch of older instruments. Considering it had spent 40 years of play in a public high school it was in really great shape. It's always been a joy to play and always becomes a talking piece anywhere I take it, especially any Tuba Christmas events. Pushing 50 years old now it has become increasingly difficult for me to keep full! On the other hand, anytime I switch over to a regular size tuba I tend to almost overblow so I use the 24J for practice and as a workout, then switch to my Eastman EBB534 for performance. The other issue I've had lately with my 24J is the the beel front facing. My hearing, while still good, isn't quite what it was and with all the sound going forward it has gotten a bit difficult to hear myself in the blend. All that said, its still fun to play and really fills the room with bass!

I've got an old 20J that's lost a lot of lacquer and has many dents. Still puts out a big sound and has a lot of warmth if you can fill it up with air. I used to march these in high school. My freshmen year they took our pictures standing behind the tuba and I looked like the old "Kilroy Was Here" cartoon.

I love older Conn!! Thats about 30 lbs of horn!

@bobjacobson858

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, my 20J is about 27.5 lbs, so the extra valve with its additional tubing would probably add a couple pounds!

I played mine using a Bach 24AW mouthpiece which creates a very deep and mellow sound, almost impossible to crack a note. That mouthpiece allows for a much better sound in the lower register. During 1964 to 1967 I played first in the 5th. Army band at Ft. Sheridan Illinois and later in the 74th Army Band at Ft. Benjamin Harrison Indiana AKA Uncle Bennie's Rest Home.

I love the oval ports! Been playing this for 51 years. See my channel for lots&lots of all kinds of jazz, latin, blues, Croatian, R&B, even some un-tuba-like classical. Thanks for teaching me how to take the valve caps apart! Various valve noises come and go. I wish I understood them better.

The 24J is a real beast. Mine is fully restored, not a dent or blemish on it. I have 20 bass tubas (not counting other types of tubas), and while the 24J is far from my favorite of those, I like its playing characteristics enough to use it for perhaps 10 or so gigs every year...mostly outdoor in the park type of situations where I want to play big without worrying about cracking my tone, and also want the sound to go somewhere besides up into the trees. I find it to be the only tuba I own that I need to use a mini-tuba stand for, rather than resting it on my lap. It also needs two cases for transport, since it is far too massive and unwieldy for a single case (I have both the original hard-shell case set as well as custom-made gig bags. I also own the upright bell, which means that my 24J can also become a 25J when needed. I find that this tuba has good playing characteristics and a warm, enveloping sound that covers the band like a warm blanket; however its intonation is somewhat unstable if I try to play it like I would my other 4/4 size tubas.....it just seems indistinct and unstable unless I put a lot of air into it. Not a horn I would use for more subtle playing situations, or smaller ensembles.

I love these horns! I have one just like it, except mine has custom dents added...

These short action valves are really a nice piece of innovation, well designed and useful. However one must be super careful about the thickness of the felts because even a small off-centre will take a consequent portion of the bore making the horn more stuffy. The good side is, if you feel like your short-action sousa /tuba is hard to play, a newsset of felts can literally ressuscitate it !

Those valves must make it much easier to play faster passages. Never would have imagined that much innovation in the design of a valve.

My brother and I played one of those, with 3 valves, in silver-across 3 decades (80s, 90s,00’s). I had no idea about the engineering involved! Apparently, this one one of the most manufactured Tubas ever, very durable and used by many schools. My dad was a school maintenence worker in the early 80’s and his school was throwing out a bunch instruments-we got the Tuba that way. Our tuba had “NYC BOE 1961” engraved in it. After I graduated, we sold it. That thing took up too much space. A local instrument store owner (and tuba enthusiast) calls this model “the Pig”. I almost bought one from him last year, but I ended up buying a more modern one that was much smaller and came with a case. I only play Christmas songs on it once a year🤷‍♂️maybe do a restoration video series on this “pig”?

I have the 20J which is the 3 valve version of this and it is by far my favorite concert tuba to play.

I have one of these 24Js over here in the UK. It was made the year I was born (so it's over 50 years old) and I always love an excuse to use it instead of one of my more modern tubas.

I have one of these, a 24J. I have four tubas and the 24j is my favorite to play. It's so heavy I have to use one of those small tripod stands to support the weight or my legs go to sleep.

@bobjacobson858

2 жыл бұрын

I bought a 20J a couple months ago, and of course being a skinny 145 lb 70 y/o I find it heavy...but I'm relieved to read that others find it the same way. However, these are marvelous instruments, and when I marched into a music store with one, I felt like 'the boss'!

The Jacksonville state university Marching Southerners still use 20Js for marching and I think it looks very distinctive. They have a very rich and full bass. I love it.

@TheMrAshley2010

3 жыл бұрын

I would have been skeptical of that had it not been so easy to find a video of them on youtube. And, holy cow!, they have 33 of them in the band!!!!! Glad I saw your comment.

Your horn is gorgeous...not all beat up and de-lacquered from abuse. I have a 20J from the 1950's. It's in pretty good shape too, but not as nice looking as yours. On my bucket list is to have it restored. But there is no justifying it given the lack of popularity of the instruments.

Beautiful horn!

Since you have shown this, and I haven't seen any mention of this, here is the differences between the 20J, 21J, 22J, 23J, 24J, 25J, 26J, and 27J: 20J - 3 valves upwards, front facing bell 21J - 3 valves upwards, up facing bell 22J - 3 valves front facing, front facing bell 23J - 3 valves front facing, up facing bell 24J - 4 valves upwards, front facing bell 25J - 4 valves upwards, up facing bell 26J - 4 valves front facing, front facing bell 27J - 4 valves front facing, up facing bell Of course, the bells are interchangeable, but then you would have had to order both sets of bells, and while some did do that, most chose one or the other, and hence why the many different models of what was essentially two different valve sets. The most common of course are the 20J's and 24J's. Also, if you want to have a lot more fun with Conn model numbers, J indicated that it was a tuba, and the 2x indicated it was in the key of B-flat. K would be sousaphones.

@bobjacobson858

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much for this information! I purchased a 20J a couple months ago from a high school, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I would think there would be relatively few people people who would march with it at a football game--the ones that can would be busy on the team playing defense!

@jdtubaman

Жыл бұрын

@@bobjacobson858 Look up Jacksonville State University down in Alabama. All they march is Conn 20J's! They have a dedicated person who fixes them up even.

@bobjacobson858

Жыл бұрын

@@jdtubaman Thanks; I'll do that. That's quite a bit of weight to carry around marching--it's quite heavy even to hold in one's lap! However, that's what enables it to produce the great sound that it does!

Didn't know Conn ever put short-action valves on a normal upright. That's pretty cool. The two-piece (err...4) valve caps also assist in preventing the valve guides from getting stuck in the valve cap threads. It's a very annoying problem on the old short-action Euphs (pre-1950s) because the valve caps are just a single piece with no knurling. You have to remember to push the guide into the valve casing before tightening the cap. Shame they don't make em like this anymore. And yes, the ads are telling the truth. The Euph version really is faster than a Cornet. So what about a short-action Cornet? Imma find out!

My middle school used--and still uses, last I checked--24Js. It may sound nuts to put such a big tuba in the hands of a small middle schooler, but they're so much less resistant than the 3/4 tubas the school has lying around. They make it easy to sound strong but not strained.

@youtuuba

3 жыл бұрын

Unfortunately, those "monster" tubas just don't play very well if the player is stingy with the air and support. My own, fully restored 24J plays rather indistinctly, with iffy intonation and poor centering if played the way I use my 4/4 size tubas. But if I play "big" and add air and support, the horn almost magically transforms into a nice player, everything starts falling into place and intonation becomes pretty good. Doing this also changes the sound from a shallow, blatty timbre to a nice full enveloping sound. Having middle school kids try to play these monster tubas is just plain nuts.

@bobjacobson858

2 жыл бұрын

@@youtuuba I have a 20J, but I don't play it extremely loud because I don't want to wake up the neighborhood or cause and earthquake. However, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to do so--that way I'll be able to appreciate how this instrument is full capable of sounding!

I mainly play trombone, but I have a Conn 20J tuba (the 3-valve version of the 24J) and I love it- such a warm sound, and surprisingly nimble and flexible for such a large instrument. If only the recording bells weren't (mostly) frowned upon in modern ensembles! Another interesting instrument is the Conn 30J and 34J- they are in every way the same instrument as the 20J and 24J respectively, but the 30J and 34J don't have the short action valves! I can only imagine what it's like to play one of those...

@TheMrAshley2010

3 жыл бұрын

You can get an upright bell for the Conns......for a price. :(

@legomn54321

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheMrAshley2010 Yeah it's a shame there's such a premium on them. Even getting the recording bell converted to upright, which saves hundreds, costs hundreds... and then you lose the recording bell!

@TheBrassandWoodwindShop

3 жыл бұрын

I wonder if they would be OK if you turned the bell sideways. That would have about the same effect as bell-up sound-wise. It would just look a little funny.

@legomn54321

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheBrassandWoodwindShop That's exactly what I did for a little while with my 20J to make it passable in the ensemble. Having one sousaphone bit in the leadpipe (like there's meant to be) offered some ergonomic flexibility with the bell turned like that. It looked really goofy, for sure.

@bobjacobson858

2 жыл бұрын

Tell everyone that it's a cross between a tuba and a sousaphone!

Can you do a video on removing really bad dents on a tuba?

@TheBrassandWoodwindShop

3 жыл бұрын

I am going to remove at least some of the dents and I am planning on doing a video of it.

Where’s that last part of the building the slide trumpet series?

@TheBrassandWoodwindShop

3 жыл бұрын

The slide trumpeter (I am not sure if that is the correct term) tried to play it, but he was having problems with the positions on a different slide trumpet. He took it home to practice it. I am planning on publishing the last video on Friday.

My school's 20K sousaphones have short action valves just like this, and a few of them are completely impossible to get out because the collar is stuck. What do you recommend doing in this situation?

@TheBrassandWoodwindShop

3 жыл бұрын

Here is the link to a video I did a while ago. It is not specifically for the short action valves, but the principle is the same. "How To Remove Stuck Valve Caps" kzread.info/dash/bejne/nGef262cZ9Xdh6g.html I hope this helps. Art

My school owned a conn tuba the only difference was that ours were 6/4 size tubas and they were massive

@TheMrAshley2010

3 жыл бұрын

The 24J is a 6/4. I wonder if the tubas at your school had upright rather than forward facing bells. That would make them seem somewhat larger than the forward bell horn.

@christophermcmillansr.9622

3 жыл бұрын

The tuba in the video is a Conn 24J which is a 6/4 size along with the Conn 20J. 20J is the 3 valve version of the same tuba.

Do you plan on restoring this 24J & selling it? I would be interested.

@TheBrassandWoodwindShop

3 жыл бұрын

I am planning on removing some dents and porting the valves. It really does not need much more than that. After I am done I will probably sell it. If you are interested, you can email me.

Are you going to remove all the dents and fully restore it?

@TheBrassandWoodwindShop

3 жыл бұрын

I will remove at least some of the dents. I am not sure how far I am going to go on it yet.

Let buy...plzzzz

@reedd.4228

3 жыл бұрын

I’m used to playing on front facing valves. Conn made a version of this tuba with the front facing valves(64j I think) which I Always want to play. I’ve played one of these conns before and they don’t disappoint. I have a conn euph with the same type of valves.

Is the 20J a 4/4 or a 5/4?

@TheBrassandWoodwindShop

Жыл бұрын

I think it is 5/4, but I am not sure. Does anyone who is reading this know? please leave a comment.

Is it for sale?

@TheBrassandWoodwindShop

3 жыл бұрын

It will probably be for sale in a few weeks or months. If you would like, you can email me for info.

@kypiper

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheBrassandWoodwindShop What's your email?

@kypiper

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheBrassandWoodwindShopstill for sale?