King Duo Gravis: Is conversion to independent valves possible?

[sidenius]

I absolutely fell in love with the sound of the King Duo Gravis when I recently borrowed my friends horn.
But I am used to independent valves and would like to stay on that road.
I've read about the split lever modification, but is it be possible at all to convert a Duo Gravis to independent without loosing the significant timbre of the horn?

[BGuttman]

The King 7B is basically a Duo Gravis with independent valves (and a somewhat more open wrap).

I'm sure you could get a set of Axials or Hagmanns mounted (for a much higher cost than a King 7B).

[Matt K]

Certainly possible but not cheap, and might change the timbre of it or at least the impression negatively. Part of what makes a dependent special is that extra 1" or so of tapered tubing between the rotor and the tuning slide. That is probably accentuated even more by the fact that the Duo Gravis is 562 rotors whereas basses are frequently 593.

[sf105]

My take is that the design of the DuoGravis is very carefully balanced. There are many subtleties, like the way the valve tubing drains condensation automatically under normal use. I wouldn't take the risk of cutting a DuoGravis, especially as they're not making them any more. Either find a 7B or, if you have the money, see what one of the custom shops can come up with.

[Kbiggs]

You might give a thought to Kanstul’s 1662i. It’s Kanstul’s version of an updated 62H with an independent setup. (The 1662 is the dependent version.) I played one a few years ago in the factory when I was testing out different valves for my custom Bach 50. It has many options, and its lightest setup is a thin bronze bell and a nickel outer slide. My impression at the time was that It’s fairly easy to get a more traditional sound and response from the instrument, more tenor-like than the modern American large bass sound. Very easy to sing and zing!

[Jgittleson]

Two things.

First, a lot of duo gravis bends and readily available from allied.

Second, the post configuration wouldnt allow for them to be arranged independently. Now if you want to use different valves, yea sure easily doable.

[Fafner]

The question is why do you need an independent setup so badly? That's a rhetorical question--you don't.

I was a good boy and worked very hard for many years learning all the different combinations a independent setup can give you. A little over a year ago I switched to dependents and haven't looked back. The only valuable option they gave me was to go from Bb to Db without (much) movement. If you're really in that big of a hurry, you can just do Bb in flat-3 and it won't be audible. I play and record tons of new music and it hasn't been an issue yet. In fact, I kept my old valve section for when something came up, and it never has. I'm selling it in a couple months.

Don't waste your money.

[Matt K]

I can understand it. I too had a Duo Gravis and really liked it. I did the opposite switch though. I played dependents for over a decade and got my first independent a few months ago and I can't believe I spent all that time without a separate G/Gb attachment. I use it more than the F attachment by like, a lot. Maybe 2:1. I have short arms though, if my arms weren't so short I could understand not thinking it such a big deal. I like G even better; having one put on my horn as I speak actually. Pullable to Gb but I don't know how often I'll use it. A lot of bass gigs I do have a passing B natural here and there but otherwise I don't have to go further than TT5 for anything and the vast majority of notes are in the staff so having the slide split in half essentially is SO convenient.