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Does anyone have any specs on the King "Jumbo" sousaphone model made by H. N. White or have any knowledge of when the "Jumbo" or "Giant" model went in to or out of production?

http://www.hnwhite.com/Low%20Brass.htm#Sousaphones" target="_blank

Are you playing 'Big Bertha'? I'll be up for the game on Saturday, October 3rd. No... I'm not bringing my Conn 'Jumbo'! I'll be watching, though.

No, I'm not marching "Big Bertha," but I am marching my horn. It is identical to Bertha minus the 4th valve. Mine was made in 1925 and "Big Bertha" was purchase in September of 1926.

A senior in the undergrade band should be marching her. That has been a tradition for almost 10 years. You won't be able to miss her as Bertha has gold wash in the interior of the bell, and the Conn 20K's the band uses now have a silver in the interior fo the bells.

I'll be in the engineering mall for a concert before the game, in the south stand during the game, and at the hall of music after the game. If you are going near by, please say hi. Just look for the extra large sousaphone.

goodgigs wrote:Hay Dan, I can't resist asking this question; Isn't the Conn Jumbo significantly larger (huger) then "big Bertha" ?
I'm just curious about the bell attachment. Isn't yours almost twelve inches?
Either way, at some point I would love to come out and make some tooling from one of those big ens !

The bell socket on the 'jumbo' is 9.56"... or about 5/16" larger than the King 'Giant'. The bell on both of my 'Jumbos' is only 28" as compared to the 32" bell on the 'Giant' that's pictured.

The truth in comparing the King 'Giant' and the Conn 'Jumbo' would probably lie in the actual bore and the diameters through the open bugle. Simply measuring the opening for the 'operator' isn't a good way to compare the two horns since most of the smaller sousas might even be larger in that area.

What's impressive about the Conn 'Jumbo' is the size of the branches. In the picture below... the player (me) is 6' and 240 pounds. Take a look at the size branch just below the bell socket in comparison to my head!

PurdueTubaPlayer wrote:No, I'm not marching "Big Bertha," but I am marching my horn. It is identical to Bertha minus the 4th valve. Mine was made in 1925 and "Big Bertha" was purchase in September of 1926.

A senior in the undergrade band should be marching her. That has been a tradition for almost 10 years. You won't be able to miss her as Bertha has gold wash in the interior of the bell, and the Conn 20K's the band uses now have a silver in the interior fo the bells.

I'll be in the engineering mall for a concert before the game, in the south stand during the game, and at the hall of music after the game. If you are going near by, please say hi. Just look for the extra large sousaphone.

Yeah... we have been at homecoming for a number of years now. We make the pre-game concerts and always stay for the half-time show.... even when Purdue is getting stomped. I'll watch for you. If an 'old geezer' tries to speak with you... don't shoo him off. It will probably be me!

Here's the King I used to own. I never did measure the thing, but the bell easily fit over my size 7 1/2 head. It just got to the point where it wasn't worth trying to carry the beast (Chloe, after a Daffy Duck cartoon) the twice a year or so I was using it. Chloe's in much better hands now.

Dick Barth was still in Cleveland at the time I got this beast, he had some official presence at King still. I called him, he sent the best thing he could find from a period catalog, which was nothing even close to this. I guess I did measure something, because I remember that the souzie in the catalog ("perfect for the travelling musician" is a phrase that really sticks in my memory...HA!!!!) was nowhere near the size of Chloe. They had nothing in their records that was any closer, and the serial number, which was from the late 1920s era, wasn't in records either, due to the legendary fire. I did try to find more information about it, but nothing.

Attached is a picture of me at Purdue 2005 homecoming with my two oldest daughters. I'm 5'10". I have since had the badly unfinished interior of the bell stripped and laquered. Cost was to much at this time to get it gold washed.

I had until this last week thought that Purdue's "Big Bertha" and my horn were King "Giant" Sousaphone with a special order 32 inch bell, but in doing some cleaning I found some notes I took on Bertha when I was pledging Kappa Kappa Psi. It stated that she was a model 1265. So, I emailed http://www.hnwhite.com" target="_blank and asked him to look in his 1920's catalogs and docs and sure enough, he found the King "Jumbo" model 1265 sousaphone. The doc he found is now up on the http://www.hnwhite.com" target="_blank website. The issue is that is did not have bore size, reciever size, etc. listed. It does state the "Jumbo" had a standard 32 inch bell, unlike the "Giant" which had a standard 28 inch bell. I'm just trying to determine if the body of the "Giant" is identical to the "Jumbo", and the bell is the only difference. If anyone owning a "Giant" is near Louisville, Kentucky, I would love to compare sometime.

The "Giant" isn't in the 1928 catalog, and the "Jumbo" isn't in the 1932 catalog. My serial shows my horn being built in early 1925, and Bertha was purchased in 1926. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

PurdueTubaPlayer wrote:Attached is a picture of me at Purdue 2005 homecoming with my two oldest daughters. I'm 5'10". I have since had the badly unfinished interior of the bell stripped and laquered. Cost was to much at this time to get it gold washed.

Cute kids! If you ever can't find one of them, she probably climbed into your sousaphone and went to sleep.