Description
This saxophone is sold! But click here to see our current selection of tenor saxophones.
The Conn 30M is the most super-deluxe saxophone model that Conn ever produced, and is at least a strong contender for the pinnacle of American saxophone manufacturing. Desired by players and collectors alike, these rare saxophones come up for sale only infrequently. They were sold as special orders and made in small numbers compared to the much more plentiful 10M tenors. Assuming 1/3 of Conn saxophones were tenors in the 30M era, and estimating roughly one 30M for every 100 10M’s, made between SN 274xxx and 307xxx, there are probably roughly 1100 30M’s that were made.
The Conn 30M is a saxophone that happened because someone at Conn was given free rein to improve the already-great 10M to a ridiculous extent. It has an improved neck design with an art deco octave key shape, improved octave mechanism, individual perm-adjust screws on every key, so that if the horn is setup once correctly, it can just continue to stay in adjustment with only pads swapped out for several decades or even more. On top of that, it has extensive hand engraving, and everything that your hands touch on the horn is either pearl or solid silver.
This particular horn has a recent overhaul, and the work feels good under the fingers. The neck is from a later Conn but it is the correct bore, done by master saxophone repairman Aaron Barnard. After comparing it side by side with an origianl neck, I can say that it plays surprisingly similarly to an original 30M neck, and it is also in tune throughout the range of the instrument. If anything, it is a bit louder/bolder feeling than a 30M neck and otherwise pretty much the same.
The tone is classic 10M/30M Conn, which, if you have never played one, is hard to describe, but is big, dark, full, complex, with power when necessary, but easy to play softly as well. More focused than an older Conn, but more spread than any modern horn, able to fill a room easily. Dexter Gordon got his signature tone first of all by being Dexter Gordon, but his Conn 30M (and sometimes 10M) together with a vintage Dukoff Hollywood helped quite a bit. If you want to hear a Conn like this in full song, you can go listen to Dexter’s classic album “Go,” or someone contemporary, like Dave O’Higgins, who also sounds great on his Conn.
This horn is a lot cheaper than a normal 30M because it has been relacquered and because of the replacement neck, but it plays great, so grab it while you can for a low price.
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