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Conn Curved Soprano NWII ‘Chu Berry’ Excellent Original Silver Plate 168010

This is a beautiful example of a Conn New Wonder II Curved Soprano saxophone. The two best Conn curved sopranos I have played were both also 168k, for whatever reason. I’m sure there are lots of great ones, but that seems to be a sweet spot.
The condition is very good – original silver plate and gold wash in the bell are both almost all present. There’s no significant damage, nor are there serious past repairs. The only repairs I see are resoldered low Eb and C key guards. These often pop off on their own, or from the smallest provocation on the curved sopranos. I don’t see any evidence of dent work around either key guard, so I do not think there was any sort of damage there. The bell flare, bell, bow, and body tube are all in very good shape.There’s a tiny U shaped piece of metal is missing from the neck, that is usually called the octave guide. It doesn’t have much of a job to do on soprano, as the octave key is so short and doesn’t need to be guided, but there’s a spot under the octave key where it used to be. I could very likely get one made and silver plated to match, though that would take a while. There’s also a foot on the Eb key that rests against a black rubber bumper that makes the Eb action feel snappy. I think that’s an addition, though Conn was always experimenting. Could be easily removed if you want, but it lets Eb open farther than it would using a felt bumper. The rolled tone holes look very good. No damage or wear or filing on this horn.
The pads are a mix of older and newer. I was just about to give this one to Matt Stohrer for a thorough checkup, as it does feel leaky in places (particularly middle D right now). That should not be too hard to fix. Just normal stuff with old saxophones. But it does not have a fresh overhaul, and the pads have rivets instead of resonators, old school.
Sort of depends on your goals for the horn what would be the wisest course of action pad wise. I could discount it if I’m not spending money on it with Matt, and if you wanted to just get it overhauled completely by your own tech. Then everything would be fresh and new all at once.
The case is in quite good condition for its age, and aside from a ‘dryer sheet’ sort of smell (which a few days of direct sunlight should mostly remove), it is one of the nicer ones I have seen.
Intonation on these horns is flexible but very good all things considered. Modern sopranos have a bore design that makes the intonation very tightly controlled, but at the expense of texture and richness of tone. Conn’s idea was to use a bore to make the horn sound wide, warm, lush, and loud, and leave it to the player to keep the intonation under control. I personally think Conn made the right decision here. While the Yamaha EX is a great soprano, for example, it sounds nothing like as warm and pleasant as a Conn like this. The guy who helped me in the shop here for many years picked out a 168k serial Conn curved as his gigging soprano out of all the horns that came through over the years. It’s that good. He plays in swing bands and just sounds super great. There are no real intonation problems, and with a medium to large chamber mouthpiece, it should slot in quite easily with a normal not-too-tight embouchure. You just have to use your ear to tell if you’re bending notes around.
Keywork feels a lot like other Conns, only closer together. The one exception is the in line palm keys, which are a bit of a struggle. If you plan to do a lot of palm key gymnastics, then I would not get this horn, because they are hard to move around on if you need to go very quickly. Besides that, yeah, it’s a solid keywork design, and it feels good. For ballads and normal sorts of high register playing, the palm keys are fine.
All in all, it’s a beautiful example of a Conn curved, from right around the best serial range for these, with minimal past repairs, a good case, a mix of pads, and a great tone.
We pay the best prices for great saxophones.

 

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Description

This is a beautiful example of a Conn New Wonder II Curved Soprano saxophone. The two best Conn curved sopranos I have played were both also 168k, for whatever reason. I’m sure there are lots of great ones, but that seems to be a sweet spot.
The condition is very good – original silver plate and gold wash in the bell are both almost all present. There’s no significant damage, nor are there serious past repairs. The only repairs I see are resoldered low Eb and C key guards. These often pop off on their own, or from the smallest provocation on the curved sopranos. I don’t see any evidence of dent work around either key guard, so I do not think there was any sort of damage there. The bell flare, bell, bow, and body tube are all in very good shape.There’s a tiny U shaped piece of metal is missing from the neck, that is usually called the octave guide. It doesn’t have much of a job to do on soprano, as the octave key is so short and doesn’t need to be guided, but there’s a spot under the octave key where it used to be. I could very likely get one made and silver plated to match, though that would take a while. There’s also a foot on the Eb key that rests against a black rubber bumper that makes the Eb action feel snappy. I think that’s an addition, though Conn was always experimenting. Could be easily removed if you want, but it lets Eb open farther than it would using a felt bumper. The rolled tone holes look very good. No damage or wear or filing on this horn.
The pads are a mix of older and newer. I was just about to give this one to Matt Stohrer for a thorough checkup, as it does feel leaky in places (particularly middle D right now). That should not be too hard to fix. Just normal stuff with old saxophones. But it does not have a fresh overhaul, and the pads have rivets instead of resonators, old school.
Sort of depends on your goals for the horn what would be the wisest course of action pad wise. I could discount it if I’m not spending money on it with Matt, and if you wanted to just get it overhauled completely by your own tech. Then everything would be fresh and new all at once.
The case is in quite good condition for its age, and aside from a ‘dryer sheet’ sort of smell (which a few days of direct sunlight should mostly remove), it is one of the nicer ones I have seen.
Intonation on these horns is flexible but very good all things considered. Modern sopranos have a bore design that makes the intonation very tightly controlled, but at the expense of texture and richness of tone. Conn’s idea was to use a bore to make the horn sound wide, warm, lush, and loud, and leave it to the player to keep the intonation under control. I personally think Conn made the right decision here. While the Yamaha EX is a great soprano, for example, it sounds nothing like as warm and pleasant as a Conn like this. The guy who helped me in the shop here for many years picked out a 168k serial Conn curved as his gigging soprano out of all the horns that came through over the years. It’s that good. He plays in swing bands and just sounds super great. There are no real intonation problems, and with a medium to large chamber mouthpiece, it should slot in quite easily with a normal not-too-tight embouchure. You just have to use your ear to tell if you’re bending notes around.
Keywork feels a lot like other Conns, only closer together. The one exception is the in line palm keys, which are a bit of a struggle. If you plan to do a lot of palm key gymnastics, then I would not get this horn, because they are hard to move around on if you need to go very quickly. Besides that, yeah, it’s a solid keywork design, and it feels good. For ballads and normal sorts of high register playing, the palm keys are fine.
All in all, it’s a beautiful example of a Conn curved, from right around the best serial range for these, with minimal past repairs, a good case, a mix of pads, and a great tone.
We pay the best prices for great saxophones.

 

Additional information

Weight 12 lbs
Dimensions 30 × 8 × 8 in

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