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Happy Tuba Tuesday

In today’s edition, from the Museum, we highlight one of our many, C. G. Conn, BBb tubas: C. G. Conn model 52J, New Wonder, Phonograph Model Bass (Tuba.)

This instrument has a front facing “recording bell.” It was called a “Phonograph” model because it was meant to be used for recording before the invention of electrical recording process circa 1929.

Before 1929, recording studios consisted of a large room with one wall that had several large funnel shaped cones projecting - large end first - into the room. Musicians directed their sound into the large end of the cones and these acoustical vibrations were then transmitted to a disk or cylinder for recording; all without the use of electricity. The front facing bell on this tuba was meant to help the tuba sound project into the cones for better recording, hence the term “recording bell.”

Even after electrical recording was invented in 1929, recording bell tubas continued to be offered by American makers up to the year 2000.

The Conn model 48J was pitched in CC. Our model 52J, is pitched in BBb. The CC tuba was preferred by the most famous American tuba virtuoso of the first quarter of the 20th century, August Helleberg.

https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... 4-pistons/

A very early film clip of the New York Philharmonic with Henry Hadley conducting and Fred Geib playing a tuba that appears to be very similar to the horn noted above. The piece was "Tannhauser" and the sound for 1929 is very good indeed. The clip can be found on YouTube.

Electrical recording was first used in 1925, and was commonplace by 1927 - a tremendous difference from the "acoustical" recordings before it.

prairieboy1 wrote:A very early film clip of the New York Philharmonic with Henry Hadley conducting and Fred Geib playing a tuba that appears to be very similar to the horn noted above. The piece was "Tannhauser" and the sound for 1929 is very good indeed. The clip can be found on YouTube.

IIRC, that was a Vitaphone film from 1926, and was also premiered with the film "Don Juan", one year before "The Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson (they were not true "talkies", but films with synchronized musical recordings).

Thank you for the above correction. The sound is very good and Mr.Geib's tuba can be heard clearly throughout the recording. A small horn with a big sound, considering how close the musicians were to each other on that stage!

https://youtu.be/jxaLAuZYdho

A link to the video in question above.

Here’s a screenshot of Mr. Geib:



The horn isn’t all that big, but what’s really interesting, to me, is the lack of extra pancake as it were on the recording bell. It’s about the same diameter as it would be as an upright bell.