Offered for your consideration is a very rare bird, especially in collector's grade condition. Here is a c.1969 (M40XXX) Conn 8B silver-plated lightweight artist trumpet made in Elkhart, Ind. It is über mint, almost 'new-old-stock'! I've never said that about any horn I've ever offered for sale, until now. I'm still shaking my head on why such a great player got so little attention. I personally play tested it and it definitely wasn't the fault of the axe. It has a beautiful open sound with a wide spectrum on it's tone-color palette. It can be bright or dark depending on mouthpiece choice. It can be narrow and laser-like or big and fat/phat. Overall, it speaks so easily. I was really blown away by this fact, since it's a smaller bore .438. With the smaller throated MPs (27/28 drills) I got a great lead-type focused sound. On bigger throated Monette style MPs, I could put a huge volume of air through the horn. I could make it sound warm and fluffy or crank out some serious volume. The open wrap and the lightweight braces and aluminum valve parts free things up immensely. I've played several Conns (22B, 12B, 2B, etc), including Connstellations (36B, 38B, 28A) in this bore size and this plays more open than any I have played. Not one bit of stuffiness detected. A very versatile horn best suited for jazz or lead. I play more legit (orchestra/quintet) and have my favorite horns already for jazz, but this is tempting to hold as a keeper. I've decided to let it go to someone who'll play it.It's a shame this super axe got relegated as a 'closet queen'. I recently purchased the trumpet from the original owner who said he only logged a total of 20 hours of playtime in it's entire life! He quit playing trumpet shortly after he purchased it in the late 60's. But he did say he had it professionally cleaned several times over the years to maintain it's current state.As for it's appearance: If it were a diamond, I would grade it as D-Flawless, if it wasn't for a few nano- or micro-swirls here and there. It is immaculate, inside and out. Mostly a bright mirror finish. The plating is factory! This is not a re-plate job, I repeat: this is NOT a re-plate job. This is the real McCoy folks! A collector's/player's dream. You get to break in this classic cult horn. Conn 8Bs were played by many of the greats in the 1960s: Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Bill Chase, Buddy Childers, Woody Shaw, just to name a few. It is also played by many lead/jazz players today such as Airmen of Note split-lead, Kevin Burns and Dontae Winslow (before he moved to an Adams DW A6, which was based off of a Conn 8B). There are no dents, dings, or pings. Bright silver plating is beautiful and 99.99% intact. A very minuscule hedge of 1/100th of 1%. It really is near perfect. The valves are smooth, fast and trouble-free. I oiled with Ultra-Pure on clean oil free valves as it recently had an ultrasonic. Will include some UP oil in the case.Awesome compression and valve alignment. Braces are solid. No patches or repairs ever made. Slides are sparkling clean and all move freely. Okay, enough superlatives. I dare you to find a better iteration that looks this good and plays even better. These rarely come up for sale, and are almost unheard of in silver plate and collector grade condition, hence the higher BIN price. All reasonable offers will be considered.Also included with listing is the original faux-tortoise, Gladstone case, lined with a soft, purple, synthetic material, and two keys! Locks and mechanisms still working well. BONUS!!! 5 Connie mouthpieces...yes, count them F-I-V-E tulip-style, Connstellation mouthpieces with this listing: 5B-W, 5B-N, 5C-W, 5C-N, 7B-N. The Conn Connie 5 series are also hard to find and are more in line with the Bach 1-1/2C and 3C range. You have the whole set to experiment with, as well as the factory MP (7B-N), which is more like a Bach 5 rim. All rims and cups are in excellent shape with the original gold plating still intact. These mouthpieces work well with this horn. I particularly liked the Conn 5B-N and 5B-W the best. But other brand of mouthpieces work well in this trumpet: Stork, Wedge, Bach, Curry, Monette, etc. Oh, almost forgot to mention FREE SHIPPING to boot! International buyers welcome if you go through shipping program and you have recent 100% positive response. Will ship via int'l shipping station in Kentucky.More pics available upon request. Please ask question at least 24 hrs before listing end. offer with confidence as I am a 100% response seller and buyer for over 10 years. Thanks for viewing. Good luck!In closing here is a link to Christine Dirksen's Conn webpage about the the original specs of the 8B. She runs a great site by the way and should be acknowledged! Jazzyj1975Posted with Mobile
Posted with Mobile
On Apr-21-14 at 08:48:47 PDT, seller added the following information:
For some odd reason all my photos got their resolution significantly lowered when I relisted. Although, if you message me through the messaging system and request better photos I will send you my original hi-res ones. Apparently you can send up to 10 photos via the message system. I just got off the phone with tech support and there is no way to reload pics without canceling the sale, so shoot me a message and I'll send you as many hi-res pics as you'd like. Thanks for understanding. Hopefully you already got a good look at this pristine horn in the last listing. This time it will be sale-style. Also, let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!
