Sousaphone history - what did I miss?

[Dave Detwiler]

Hi all,

Due to a new job starting for me this year - and the fact that I have pretty much used up all of the research I was able to conduct while on sabbatical this past summer - I am bringing my little blog on Sousaphone history to a close (at least for now). Let me know if you think I missed anything really important - or perhaps drew any wrong conclusions based on the evidence to which I had access.

Here's the location of the blog, with the last entry being my timeline of Sousaphone history, with each entry linked to other parts of the blog: http://tubapastor.blogspot.com/.

Warmly,
Dave

[jacobg]

That's great.
Has anyone written a history of the helicon?
What happened between 1845 and 1892?

[WilliamVance]

I really enjoyed you blog, especially all of the vintage pictures you found and posted. Thanks for posting up all of your findings!

[David Richoux]

Interesting, but you could put a picture of an early Helicon in the first article - a European design instead of a later American version would be useful. There are a lot of pictures and illustrations around.

[Dave Detwiler]

Brian - the notice I found in Variety from 1961 sure makes it sound like the fiberglass Sousaphone was making its debut that year. If anyone has any evidence of an earlier appearance, I'd love to see it!

David - for my very brief feature on the Helicon, I chose to show the 1907 Conn ad where a Helicon and a Sousaphone appear side-by-side, for comparative purposes, and then show an earlier model Helicon (1880s) imported for J. W. Pepper, as Pepper went on to make the first Sousaphone. Make sense? I would love to see if I can find a photo of a Helicon from 1845 - post one if you've got one!

Ian - good thought about possibly using the upright bells from the larger tubas prior to 1957.

[jacobg]

This is the earliest illustration I have found of a circular, over-the-shoulder bass brass instrument, the saxtuba from 1867:
I assume this one is BBb contrabass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saxtuba1867.jpg" target="_blank

and the Eb bass, from 1853, in the Met Museum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saxtuba.jpg" target="_blank

[David Richoux]

David - for my very brief feature on the Helicon, I chose to show the 1907 Conn ad where a Helicon and a Sousaphone appear side-by-side, for comparative purposes, and then show an earlier model Helicon (1880s) imported for J. W. Pepper, as Pepper went on to make the first Sousaphone. Make sense? I would love to see if I can find a photo of a Helicon from 1845 - post one if you've got one!

This is the earliest one I can find right now - http://www.tuba.org.ru/herkules.gif from an old thread here on Tubenet. I thought there was another early helicon patent drawing, but I seem to have lost my file... Google images has quite a few very old helicons but many are not dated.

[David Richoux]

This is the earliest illustration I have found of a circular, over-the-shoulder bass brass instrument, the saxtuba from 1867:
I assume this one is BBb contrabass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saxtuba1867.jpg" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

and the Eb bass, from 1853, in the Met Museum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saxtuba.jpg" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

I think the first one is a satyrical illustration - there are several others by the same artist.

big-tuba.jpg