Strictly Oompah: Introducing a fiberglass Sousaphone!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Introducing a fiberglass Sousaphone!

The year 1961 brought what is arguably the most significant development in the history of the Sousaphone. Here's what was reported in the Wednesday, July 26 edition of Variety that year (p. 51):

While I don't know if the very first fiberglass Sousaphone can be identified today, the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, CA has one of the earliest ones on display, having been built in 1962:

Photo taken by author

Of course, other instrument companies immediately began producing their own fiberglass Sousaphones, as they knew they would be a hit with school bands (being so much lighter and much less easy to damage). For example, here is an ad from September 1961 for the RMC/Reynolds Contempora version:

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Sousa on the Sousaphone

"The Sousaphone received its name through a suggestion made by me to J. W. Pepper, the instrument manufacturer of Philadelphia, fully 30 odd years ago. At that time, the United States Marine Band of Washington, D. C., of which I was conductor, used a double B-flat bass tuba of circular form know as a 'Helicon.' It was all right enough for street-parade work, but its tone was apt to shoot ahead too prominently and explosively to suit me for concert performances, so I spoke to Mr. Pepper relative to constructing a bass instrument in which the bell would turn upwards and be adjustable for concert purposes. He built one, and grateful to me for the suggestion, called it a Sousaphone. It was immediately taken up by other instrument makers, and is today manufactured in its greatest degree of perfection by the C. G. Conn Company, of Elkhart, Ind." (John Philip Sousa, Christian Science Monitor, August 30, 1922, p. 8)