Please ID the only ever Danish military sousaphone

[imperialbari]

This photo of the then Danish Navy band is from 1931.

To me the sousaphone looks like a very big American made sample, maybe even a Jumbo. But I cannot tell the maker or the modeæ- Please help-

Klaus

[Ace]

Interesting. I don't know about the Sousaphone except that it does indeed appear to be a jumbo. Also, regarding the musician third from the left, why does he show up at the job wearing his ordinary duty hat when all the others are wearing Class A dress hats?

Ace

[imperialbari]

As for the hat, the guy didn’t have the right to wear anything but that one.

The Danish military bands, but for the royal guard band, which has had 36 members for about 150 years, traditionally have been very small. From 1932 through 1941 there were no bands but for the royal guard band. so until 40 years ago the bands had the right to supplement themselves with draftees, if relevant players of a sufficient standard were available. Now musicians form their own class with no military grades, but back in the days the directors were lieutenants and the tenured musicians were petty officers, while the draftee players were privates.

So in the navy the draftee players only could wear ordinary sailors’ uniforms.

Klaus

[toobagrowl]

Not a Jumbo sousa as it's not nearly fat enough throughout. Bigger than a 14K. Bell seems smaller in diameter than the typical 26" bell, yet has a largish throat. Hard to tell as you can't see much of the sousa, but it looks like some old pre-20K Conn sousa to me.

[imperialbari]

To me this sousaphone looks at least as fat as my Conn 40K. The collar area may even be fatter.

The sousaphones with very fat throaths create an opticl illusion of having small bell diameters, because there isn’t much bell flare. The bore at the connection ring between knee and bell is already huge, and with at least the Conn 40K there is a quite long expansion before the pancake comes at last. The bell flare of my Conn 40K looks very much like like the one of this sousaphone, and mine has a bell diameter of 24”.

Klaus