Tubas, euphoniums, mouthpieces, and anything music-related.
Forum rules
This section is for posts that are directly related to performance, performers, or equipment. Social issues are allowed, as long as they are directly related to those categories. If you see a post that you cannot respond to with respect and courtesy, we ask that you do not respond at all.
Here is my ranking, by size, of the Subcontrabass Tubas I have been able to track down in my research. Do you know of any others that I have somehow missed - and can you verify their existence, whether now or in the past? Or do you have more reliable data on any of the ones listed?
Thanks so much!
Dave
Ranking Known Subcontrabass Tubas by Size.JPG (118.84 KiB) Viewed 683 times
Played an F. E. Olds 4-valve BBb in high school (late '70s)
Led the USC Trojan Marching Band tuba section (early '80s)
Now playing an F. Schmidt (=VMI) 3301 and goofing around
on a 1925 Pan American Sousaphone and an 1899 Conn tuba!
Played an F. E. Olds 4-valve BBb in high school (late '70s)
Led the USC Trojan Marching Band tuba section (early '80s)
Now playing an F. Schmidt (=VMI) 3301 and goofing around
on a 1925 Pan American Sousaphone and an 1899 Conn tuba!
Last call for any additional subcontrabass tuba sightings - thanks!
And @bloke, what can you tell me about the Hoffnung tuba, having apparently seen it and played it?
Played an F. E. Olds 4-valve BBb in high school (late '70s)
Led the USC Trojan Marching Band tuba section (early '80s)
Now playing an F. Schmidt (=VMI) 3301 and goofing around
on a 1925 Pan American Sousaphone and an 1899 Conn tuba!
Dave Detwiler wrote: ↑Tue Feb 02, 2021 6:24 am
Last call for any additional subcontrabass tuba sightings - thanks!
And @bloke, what can you tell me about the Hoffnung tuba, having apparently seen it and played it?
If that is the instrument that is in Texas, I spent just a long enough time with it to have my picture taken with it, and to discover that it’s a giant vacuum cleaner. Its own mouthpiece overshot my face, and I’m not a person with a small face.
Regardless of how much gigantism is involved in designing an instrument, the human end of it probably (??) needs to accommodate humans.
Thanks, Ian (@Mithosphere. But this raises a few questions:
1. If a 13-ft Eb tuba is considered a bass tuba, wouldn't a 26-ft Eb be a contrabass, and then a 52-ft Eb, such as the Saxhorn bourdon (no. 1 in my ranking above), be a subcontrabass? Or is "sub-bass" a category used with Eb tubas?
2. What is the make and year of your 26-ft Eb?
3. I have not yet found any hard evidence (articles or images) for a subcontrabass Cerveny. Bevan mentions one (or is it two?) in his book, but with no documentation. What more can you tell me?
Thanks again!
Dave
Played an F. E. Olds 4-valve BBb in high school (late '70s)
Led the USC Trojan Marching Band tuba section (early '80s)
Now playing an F. Schmidt (=VMI) 3301 and goofing around
on a 1925 Pan American Sousaphone and an 1899 Conn tuba!
This was he same question I had - since it’s more or less a one-off instrument, it’s hard to figure out how it’s classified. At 26-27 feet long - double the length of a standard bass in E-flat, that would fall in the range of the contrabass. Although if week look at organ notation, as I was told by someone either on that other tuba forum or YouTube, it’s considered a subbass.... but then the Okemos, MI 26-27 foot E-flat helicon is called a subcontrabass...
I’ll have to find that old thread, if the posts haven’t been deleted, to see if I can find the University of Illinois concert program that lists this E-flat tuba in question, although I think they called it a contrabass. I know it was probably made by Bohland & Fuchs pre-1920.
Cerveny made really early tubas and I think someone had found an old catalog showing models like a subcontrabass, but I think we’re talking about the big rotary valve be that is the Amati in B-flat - there was all sorts of talk on what key it was in on the old old Tube—- I mean old tuba forum pre-2004.
Mithosphere wrote: ↑Wed Feb 03, 2021 1:14 pmthe Okemos, MI 26-27 foot E-flat helicon is called a subcontrabass...
Now that the Okemos building is gone, it could be assumed that the EEb subbass/subcontrabass helicon and all the other tubas that hung from the ceiling or rested in the basement are in the hands of the former owner of the defunct museum/restaurant.
