I had a 1933 Conn Transitional tenor. It had rare art deco engraving and was in silver. It was an incredible player. I let my sax instructor play test it once, he was a Selmer MK VI fanatic and his eyes popped out when he heard the sound of that horn. I sadly sold it to someone in Japan.

Beautiful instruments and a beautiful room to go with them!

@danielkinzelman7093

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you Willem! Yes, I've been super lucky in both departments.

I have similar buescher alto for 25 years that was originally my grandfathers great instrument but really low is where intonation is tough and it’s not free blowing. But it’s around a 1947-48. Looking at yours with the fours pearls on right hand is different than mine but I think it’s a little earlier model of a big b. There websites that you can research and gauge by the serial # within a couple of years of it manufactured year.

Hey This is Dave in Massachusetts USA. I was drawn to your transcription party videos and saw this. Love your videos. I play a '32 Conn transitional tenor and I love it. By the way, you should know that the Brilhart ligature with the "b" screw heads is worth $400 or more.

@danielkinzelman7093

3 жыл бұрын

Wow thanks for writing Dave. If you're interested in joining us (there will be a party tonight, which should be early afternoon for you!) you can sign up here: www.freelists.org/list/transcriptionparty I had no idea that ligature was worth so much!

I like Vintage Saxophones, but don’t own any currently ! Thanks

That ligature you found is actually not a Buescher. It’s a Brillhart. They provided these with their mouthpieces back in the day. There quite rare. (Edit: just realized you’ve already been told. Well regardless if your keeping it or selling it. Nice lig).

@danielkinzelman7093

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Definitely don't plan to sell it for now, but its nice to know its valuable.

who did the mods on the Conn it looks like you moved the bis and high F key s that's what I want on my NW

@danielkinzelman7093

4 жыл бұрын

They were done by a wonderful repairman in southern Italy, Domenico Bartolomeo. Where are you based? I highly recommend him: He's an incredible craftsman and very very passionate about his work. After he overhauled my horn I went to pick it up and he spent 7 hours with me, tweaking details and even completely rebuilding some keys to fit my hands precisely. Those mods were huge, and there's also some other stuff you can't see here, but you'll see it in the video I've got coming up, but they ended up being game changers in terms of comfort and agility on the instrument. The horn was already stripped of its lacquer when I bought it, which in hindsight was kind of perfect for me because that way I had no sense of guilt about heavy surgery during the overhaul. I think I would be much more reticent to do something similar to the Buescher for example, just because it is so pristine.

@1dotele

4 жыл бұрын

@@danielkinzelman7093 I'm in Florida there is a guy in Denmark I think that does amazing work on old Conns he is out of my budget though but what a craftsman the lacquer is stripped off mine too and I like it that way I can't wait for the review on your horn

@danielkinzelman7093

4 жыл бұрын

@@1dotele My guy in Italy is very affordable, but I don't know how shipping and customs work. I used to live in Florida, studied at University of Miami! Regarding overhauls, the problem is I think the last 10% you get if you actually go pick up the horn yourself, because that was when he tailored everything to fit my hands (there's no way to do that remotely). And I think that's a step that not every repairman is willing to do (or knows how). It definitely helped that I had very specific ideas, and another thing that helped me was that he had a ton of other saxophones in his shop that I could fool around with while he was adjusting stuff on mine. For example, I had asked for one modification via email, which he spent a lot of time on. Then while I was there I tried another saxophone he had in the shop, which felt much more comfortable, so we basically threw away the modification I had asked for and took a totally different route, imitating the hand position of a contemporary Chinese instrument which happened to fit my hand better.

@1dotele

4 жыл бұрын

@@danielkinzelman7093 wow he sounds like a great guy I would love to go there I have a cousin that lives in Milan I'm in the Cape Gulf side I bought my New Wonder from a guy in West Palm Beach he did a great overhaul but I still want some mods I'll try to find the video of the guy I mentioned and ad a link this guy is an amazing craftsman

@1dotele

4 жыл бұрын

@@danielkinzelman7093 check out some of the things this guy does with old Conns kzread.info/dash/bejne/nmyK2KuYgdnJfJs.html

Gorgeous Buescher - I'd reckon mid 50s

@danielkinzelman7093

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Apistosig. I think the serial seems to suggest pre-WWII, but I don't have the horn in my hands now. I plan to do a video on it in the future.

That looks to me like a Brillhart ligature not a Buescher ligature. They are very sought after. You should look at a large volume mouthpiece to keep intonation in check.

@danielkinzelman7093

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the info Ian! Do you have recommendations of specific mouthpieces? In the meantime I've done some work on key heights as well, which has made a huge difference, but there's still plenty of room for improvement...

@ianwhatmough150

3 жыл бұрын

@@danielkinzelman7093 My 10m ('51) is set with a relatively open pad height. Matt Storher has a good explanation on this on his KZread channel. If I had to recommend a straight ahead jazz mouthpiece with a large chamber I'd say get in touch with Sebastian Knox (sebastianknox.com) and have him make you one of his "American Series" "Traditional" mouthpieces in your desired tip opening. Don't bother messing around looking for vintage pieces. They will never play as well as his. They will set you back about $495 CDN. Worth every penny. Check out Joel Frahm playing on one.

@danielkinzelman7093

3 жыл бұрын

@@ianwhatmough150 Thanks for the tip on the Stohrer video, I'll check it out. Joel Frahm used to live in my hometown, we had the same repairman for a while. I'll look up the mouthpieces, but I definitely don't want to drop that kind of money on a mouthpiece right now. At the moment I'm alternating between a Meyer and a weird transparent orange plastic mouthpiece called a Conn Comet that my repairman had laying around in a drawer. It's got a really interesting kind of nasal sound - not exactly beautiful, but strange and interesting to play. Happy holidays!

@ianwhatmough150

3 жыл бұрын

@@danielkinzelman7093 On a budget pick up a new Otto Link Tone Edge in a 7*. I found my Meyer 7 didn't work on my Conn and recently sold it to someone who plays on a Yamaha.

@danielkinzelman7093

3 жыл бұрын

@@ianwhatmough150 thanks for the tip. I'll look out for one.

I feel really bad for you, getting a Mark VI stolen sucks!

@danielkinzelman7093

Жыл бұрын

Yes, I don't recommend it.

Modern Rampone & Cazzani are outstanding horns, but the older/vintage ones are total crap

@danielkinzelman7093

3 жыл бұрын

I don't have much experience with new or old R&C horns, but this one has an amazing sound and personality. Unfortunately intonation is pretty haphazard, but I imagine a good overhaul would help.