Bandmaster wrote:I picked up this old Conn Eb Tuba off of eBay a couple weeks ago just for the fun of it.
Here's the top-action version of one of those.... not quite as pretty as yours, though!
The serial number is 50172... listing it as built in 1898... also at the Worchester Plant. It looks a little nicer now. When I received the horn, it had a steel receiver on it that was apparently a home-brewed repair... maybe done at a time when brass was not available. The waterkey also has a flat spring... fairly common on American horns made prior to 1900.
Dan Schultz
"The Village Tinker" http://www.thevillagetinker.com" target="_blank
Current 'stable'... Rudolf Meinl 5/4, Marzan (by Willson) euph, King 2341, Alphorn, and other strange stuff.
My 1910 top action Conn Eb also has a flat spring waterkey.
Somewhere around this period they stopped using the design with the top bow so close to the bell flare and started making them more tightly wrapped, closer to the design of most mid-20th century Eb piston tubas. Why?
jacobg wrote:Somewhere around this period they stopped using the design with the top bow so close to the bell flare and started making them more tightly wrapped, closer to the design of most mid-20th century Eb piston tubas. Why?
My guess is style (the same reason that they went away from the shepherd's crook look for cornets). The same thing happened for both baritones and euphoniums. Then again, it allowed them to use the same outer wrap for both top action and front action horns.
Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow, but only to be troubled and insecure?
jacobg wrote:Somewhere around this period they stopped using the design with the top bow so close to the bell flare and started making them more tightly wrapped, closer to the design of most mid-20th century Eb piston tubas. Why?
My guess is style (the same reason that they went away from the shepherd's crook look for cornets). The same thing happened for both baritones and euphoniums. Then again, it allowed them to use the same outer wrap for both top action and front action horns.
Well, just maybe after the factory burned to the ground in 1910 they re-tooled when they built the new factory? They claimed to have redesigned their horns after the fire. See URL below for story...
jacobg wrote:Somewhere around this period they stopped using the design with the top bow so close to the bell flare and started making them more tightly wrapped, closer to the design of most mid-20th century Eb piston tubas. Why?
My guess is style (the same reason that they went away from the shepherd's crook look for cornets). The same thing happened for both baritones and euphoniums. Then again, it allowed them to use the same outer wrap for both top action and front action horns.
Well, just maybe after the factory burned to the ground in 1910 they re-tooled when they built the new factory? They claimed to have redesigned their horns after the fire. See URL below for story...
Lyon & Healy may have contracted to Conn to make their instruments. About the same time, they quit making a lot of their own instruments, including even having made pipe organs for awhile!
JohnH wrote:I have a 1906 Conn 4-valve euphonium with almost identical engraving, and the front-action valve configuration is the same as your horn with double slides top and bottom for 1 and 3. It is a dual-pitch model and came with an extra main slide insert, although it plays a little low with the extra pipe so I usually leave it out and pull the slide.
I think Conn was building low pitch to about A=435 then. I have a 1907 double bell baritone with the same low pitch problem, so I remade a high pitch slide for it, and do the same.
Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow, but only to be troubled and insecure?
JohnH wrote:That would explain it, then. I have a 1924 high-pitch Conn New Wonder Eb helicon that is very high, all the slides have to come out almost to their limit to play at standard pitch. I think the low pitch model of this horn during this period was closer to modern pitch.
Yes, they went up to 440. I have a silver 1924 Eb with High and Low pitch slides, and the low are just fine. Do you have the original neck? Mine's not, and I'd love to see a picture if you do!
Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow, but only to be troubled and insecure?
Bob1062 wrote:My serial # is 28423 and is on the second valve, does anyone think that this a conn number?
I'm guessing not. 28423 on a Conn would be 1894, and C.G. was famous for objecting to, and taking people to court over stencil horns. I'd hazard that Conn the company didn't get into stencils until after C.G. sold out in 1915. I suppose that it could have been built by Fiske in Worcester before Conn bought Fiske's factory in 1887. Also the Conn stencils that I've seen often have a serial number that starts with 'P'.
Lyon & Healey claimed in their catalogs that they had been building (at least some of) their horns from 1896-1930.
Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow, but only to be troubled and insecure?
Bob1062 wrote:Bandmaster, do you still have the Conn?
How do you like it so far?
Yes I still have it, although Robb Stewart has it right now. He is trying to free up all the tuning slides for me. It plays fairly nice, but to be able to set the slides properly will help, I hope. There are signs of past repairs of the bell and the third valve. It was apparently hit near the third valve and things were knocked out of alignment a little. But overall it is in very good condition. I need to get a proper mouthpiece to fit the receiver which should make play even better.
BTW, I paid $375 including shipping and it came with an old Yamaha canvas gig bag too.
Last edited by Bandmaster on Sat May 06, 2006 2:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
jacobg wrote:My 1910 top action Conn Eb also has a flat spring waterkey.
Somewhere around this period they stopped using the design with the top bow so close to the bell flare and started making them more tightly wrapped, closer to the design of most mid-20th century Eb piston tubas. Why?
Maybe because they were making bell-front models and wanted the tubing to wrap a little lower. Besson made some bell-fronts with the high tubing and they look pretty ridiculous.
was doing instrument repair??? But there is a Robb Stewart in Arcadia doing repairs! 
