Posted by Rick Denney on February 28, 2003 at 19:00:55:
In Reply to: Conn Grand Orchestral posted by Harv on February 28, 2003 at 16:01:43:
In his book A Treatise on the Tuba, Donald Stauffer included a portion of a catalog page showing the Conn 36J Orchestra Grand Bass. The instrument shown was a 6/4 instrument with similar outer branches to all the big 2xJ's and 3xJ's, with a fixed upright bell and front-action valves. It was available, as I recall, in both BBb and CC, though there may have been differences in the designations. The valves were not the newer short-action valves found on 2xJ's. I don't know what other instruments may have attracted the same label. Dr. Stauffer himself played one of these instruments in the 30's, and that was the approximate vintage of that catalog page, near as I could tell.
Conn made some big sousaphones, but I've never heard of one being called an orchestral anything.
Rick "throwing one data point into the mix" Denney