Late Conn 15J, King 1140, Blessing B450 Tuba Similarities

[Dan Schultz]

Not the pre-87 Conn 15J's.... just the ones after UMI (who already owned Conn) bought King and move the Conn tuba production to Cleveland. Has anyone done a comparison on these horns to see what parts will interchange?

[Dan Schultz]

Bump

Joe??

Chuck??

Lee??

Dan O??

Sam??

[Dan Schultz]

I feel like I'm talking to myself here.... but I spoke with Rob Phillips at Eastlake this morning about this. Paraphrasing as follows (If anyone's interested):

The Blessing B450 was made totally at Blessing but may have been a copy of the King 1140. As far as Rob knows, the parts don't interchange... but might. The King 1140 was discontinued about twelve years ago. Details are sketchy, but the Conn 15J was probably merged into the King 1140 production when UMI (who already owned Conn) bought King around 1987. It's conceivable that the King 1140 and the Conn 15J (built after 1988) was the same horn built under both the King and Conn badges until both were discontinued.

In conclusion... if you have a Conn 15J that was made in 1988 or later... you probably need to order King 1140 parts. Serial numbers are also sort of weird during the Conn/King/UMI transition but you can identify the later horns easily because the marching leadpipe is in the shape of a 'J' and the concert leadpipe stays on the horn even when using the marching leadpipe. The tuning slide in the leadpipe is repositioned and the marching leadpipe is held on by a couple of aluminum clamps. On the earlier 15J's, the concert leadpipe and the marching leadpipes were actually changed out and attached to a receiver at the valveset.

[Chuck(G)]

Not the pre-87 Conn 15J's.... just the ones after UMI (who already owned Conn) bought King and move the Conn tuba production to Cleveland. Has anyone done a comparison on these horns to see what parts will interchange?

It wouildn't surprise me if there weren't a lot of incest. I've noticed that King, Conn, Olds and Reynolds "small bore" valve caps all have the same thread, even though the external styles are different. And that the pistons are basically the same diameter, even if the bore size differs.