"monster" tubas

[bloke]

Why are there so many "monster" tubas and NO "monster" violins or violas?

When I google "monster violin", all I get are pictures of monsters playing violins, and no monster violins...

...and what about monster piccolos?

[Dan Tuba]

Maybe because us tuba players oftentimes resemble "monsters," so in order to make this reality a little more palatable, manufacturers did us a favor and started naming the tubas "monsters."

[donn]

Monster violas are a thing, or have been at any rate. The viola is significantly undersized in order to be playable in the modern violin style, but of course it can be quite a bit larger if played like a violoncello. The other undersized relative is the string bass, and of course there exist 5/4 basses and so forth, but I guess as an acoustic instrument there's sort of a diminishing returns problem there, and as an amplified instrument size isn't so important.

While checking up on this, I encountered a reference to a Monster Viola, developed apparently with some encouragement from Leopold Stokowski. The title says "vertical", but the text seems to be about a horizontal design.

I think the instruments that are generally unlikely to come in fat versions are the woodwinds, particularly flute and clarinet family.

[Ace]

I really don't know why the term "monster" is applied to some tubas but not to other instruments.  However, "monster" can be a complimentary term for an admired performer; e.g., he is a "monster player". Same thing for some other vocations.  My nephew was an All-American offensive tackle at University of California- Berkeley and played in the pros in the 1980's.  Playing his rookie year for Houston in a Monday Night Football game he attracted the attention of John Madden when he decked a veteran on the other team.  Madden exclaimed, "Look at that young rookie, Harvey Salem, out there.  The kid is a monster player. He just dropped Hollywood Henderson".  Perhaps in the world of tubas, some models and designs turn out to be exceptional instruments, worthy of the "monster" appellation. Ace

[bloke]

well...I - for one (a sensitive person, who often seeks out a real or virtual safe space) - am “triggered” by the term, and view it – as used so often in conjunction with tubas – as a form of discrimination, if not overt bigotry.
When there is a choice – as everyone has the right to choose - between being offended and not being offended, isn’t being offended always best ?

[Three Valves]

Now that is colder, that monster viola with all that flammable varnish seems oddly appealing...

[Casca Grossa]

I have been searching forever for a 6/4 violin

[tokuno]

I really don't know why the term "monster" is applied to some tubas but not to other instruments.  However, "monster" can be a complimentary term for an admired performer; e.g., he is a "monster player". Same thing for some other vocations.  My nephew was an All-American offensive tackle at University of California- Berkeley and played in the pros in the 1980's.  Playing his rookie year for Houston in a Monday Night Football game he attracted the attention of John Madden when he decked a veteran on the other team.  Madden exclaimed, "Look at that young rookie, Harvey Salem, out there.  The kid is a monster player. He just dropped Hollywood Henderson".  Perhaps in the world of tubas, some models and designs turn out to be exceptional instruments, worthy of the "monster" appellation. Ace

Roll on you Bears!
As soon as I saw "Houston", it confirmed my guess that you were referencing Harvey Salem. :-)
Loved watching him for the brief overlap (I was a freshman bandsman in '82 - "The Play" - I think his final year at Cal).
Hope his body's holding up ok after the years of exertion and abuse.
Thanks for the quick visit to memory lane.

[windshieldbug]

Why just "Monsters"!?

There were also "Mammoth" tubas, too.
And why no Mammoth Monster Eb tubas, either?

[Ace]

Why just "Monsters"!?

There were also "Mammoth" tubas, too.
And why no Mammoth Monster Eb tubas, either?

Mammoth Monster. I like it. What's next? The new model 7/4 CC tuba, "Tyrannosaurus Rex". Hey guys, for those times when you really want to lay waste the strings or win the heart of that cute new harp player, only the Rex will do.

Ace

[Doc]

Maybe because us tuba players oftentimes resemble "monsters," so in order to make this reality a little more palatable, manufacturers did us a favor and started naming the tubas "monsters."

RAAAWWRRR!

[kingrob76]

I'm going to assert that the term "monster" is not a size-related term, but, more representative of instruments that have parts from multiple sources (King valveset with York bell, for example), something more akin to Frankenstein's Monster than say King Kong or Godzilla. I'm sure clarinet players love the acoustic benefits of putting a Bundy mouthpiece on their Buffet clarinets, they just don't talk about it like we do....

[iiipopes]

Yes there are. The playing of upper strings by students can definitely be described as "monstrous."

[donn]

The term goes back to early 1900s tuba models from H N White (King) and York, and Eb Martin - extra large Martin BBb tubas were Mammoth, like Holton. Conn used the more prosaic term "Giant." The word used to mean something like "freak of nature", back in the day when Frankenstein was written, and that meaning is in that sense historically respectable. I don't know exactly how it came to mean "big", but that's what it means to tuba people, thanks to York et al.

[bloke]

My personal equipment is referred to as "behemoth", but - well - it's not my tubas...

[Three Valves]

Sees "behemoth"...

http://gph.is/1ccmjox

[GC]

I use the word "Monster" because I saw it in a piece of Conn literature describing their biggest Eb's. I think. Maybe. I'm absolutely certain. Not.

[humBell]

Yeah, i adopted it as a moniker after seeing the Conn Loyalist listings online, which seems to use Giant for Eb bell size and Monster for BBb. I only assume it came from original publicity materials.

https://cderksen.home.xs4all.nl/ConnBassModels.html

I also like to infer that the American Model being front action, that american as modifier means front action, so i like to refer to the (early model number) 28j as an american monster.

And i learned from Sesame Street that monsters aren't all that bad. C is for cookie, and that is good enough for me.

[tofu]

.

[bloke]

The tuning - with some of the old monster E-flats - can tend towards the monstrous, see?