Subcontrabass tubas, or just chubby contrabasses?

[poomshanka]

Interesting - thanks for sharing that. Did you by any chance measure the bell diameter?

I didn't, but if I had to take a guess, I'd say somewhere in the 36" to 42" range.

[Mithosphere]

I'll chime in...

Brooke's Monster Bass looks like the tuba version of a Conn Grand Jumbo sousaphone. Why do I say this? Look at the size difference between a Holton 345 BBb and a Conn 46K Grand Jumbo BBb.

https://imgur.com/gallery/y8YxiPu

You can see the player size differences too. We all had the same size instrument (although many difference between the four as they were almost each from a different year - Andy and mine were from the same year and within 10 serial numbers of one another). Would be good to find pictures of the player to determine size of this larger BBb tuba from Conn.

The Giant helicon from Conn, we thought was an EEb. It's difficult to tell from the single photo if there is another wrap of tubing behind the instrument, as some helicon had early on. Like the Louis B. Malecki EEb helicon:

https://imgur.com/gallery/WcAFXzB

To me, it looks like the helicon in question has three loops of body tubing, which would indicate longer than 18-foot Bb. Look at the mess of tubing around the valve section - there's a lot going on there to be in 18-foot Bb or 16-foot C.

The other two in the thread are quite known. The Hoffnung is in 32-foot C, while the other is an exaggerated 16-foot C or something close to that.

[Alex C]

If i had to guess, yeah, the one on the left is low F, and the on the right low C, and perhaps the 4th valve onthe left gives them the right to call it a C? Similar logic as the A/Bb adjustment loops in some old trumpets.

Trying to guess what anything is from a photo is one step up from totally guessing.

[humBell]

If i had to guess, yeah, the one on the left is low F, and the on the right low C, and perhaps the 4th valve onthe left gives them the right to call it a C? Similar logic as the A/Bb adjustment loops in some old trumpets.

Trying to guess what anything is from a photo is one step up from totally guessing.

True, but is rather a large step.

Pretty sure none of the pictures in this thread are of flowers.

I bet you can also guess from my comment that i'm a smart alec.

[humBell]

Thanks also @Mikelynch for pointing out that is common practice to put smaller people in the pictures. At a second glance, that does look like a smaller person, and they did a fine job of playing up to the image of Sousa's band's tuba players.

[Three Valves]

Jockey by day, BAT player by night.