From the photos, you can see that it looks like a new horn with a gold wash inner bell to set off the new silver plating nicely. It has a handy first valve trigger to make intonation a bit easier too. This one has also been rebuilt with all new felts, springs and water keypads.
#P trumpet conn selmer trumpet series#
This Cool Constellation plays and sounds wonderful, with all the fine agility, slotting and quick response of the original Constellation series horns. This Cool Constellation, #5 568959, is a 2100B made by Conn in 1995-6 when it was then part of the UMI group and before Conn was sold to Steinway to become Selmer-Conn. Trumpet players perception of anything made by Conn after they had moved to Abilene was so jaded that they squashed all attempts to revive the Conn name.
#P trumpet conn selmer trumpet professional#
What I think happened back then was that the new owners of Conn attempted to bring back Conn's fine reputation after having lost it in the Abilene debacle by making well-made, superior professional horns. Quite frankly, a multi-million dollar company isn't going to spend a hundred thousand dollars on R & D, a design, construction and necessary marketing on a truly inferior horn. Like the original Constellations, they all have great response and intonation. Over the years I have rebuilt and played several 60Bs 61Bs and Cool Constellation trumpets and I have yet to find a poorly made one, though I have found the original Abilene made Constellations inconsistently made. In fact, all these new designs were unanimously dissed by trumpet players despite that very few of them had ever played one. Unfortunately, Conn still hadn't regained its good reputation so that the Cool Constellation trumpets were undeservedly slandered. This time by reintroducing the Constellation as the "Cool Constellation". That horn too was dissed by trumpet players. They tried to bolster the Conn name with a new professional trumpet design, the 60B which they called the Super Constellation, and then, when that design wasn't well received, the 61B. But because after they were moved by MacMillan to Abilene, quality control dropped off and the horns weren't consistently good, interest in the Constellation trumpet dropped off too and they eventually stopped making the Constellation. Conn only survives today as a brand of musical instruments manufactured by Conn-Selmer that only make two instruments, the Conn 8D, and the 88H trombone.Ĭonn continued to make Constellation professional trumpets, even after they were sold in 1969. Steinway Musical Instruments and in 2003 they were merged by Steinway into a subsidiary, Conn-Selmer. In 2000 Conn was sold once again, this time to Then again in 1985 to UMI (United Musical Instruments). A year later the company was moved by MacMillan from Elkhart, Indiana to Abilene, Texas where quality control dropped off because most of the employees were new and inexperienced. Due to impending bankruptcy, in 1969, Conn was sold to the Crowell-Collier-MacMillan Around 1970 the Conn company began to lose its great fame. If I'm wrong after a month of playing, and you don't agree, send it back.Ĭonn Constellation trumpets are one of the most sought after vintage horns for over the past fifty years because of their agile, quick response and excellent slotting and intonation. With a month to decide, I feel confident that you'll agree with my assessment. Sometimes it isn't well-founded, as I have found the lore surrounding this horn to be. One of the reasons I decided to have a one-month satisfaction buyer policy is so that a buyer can try out a horn long enough to know it very well so as to have good, first-hand reasons to keep a horn or not. This Cool Constellation is an easy blowing horn with good intonation and a fine upper register. I'm done with it I can play it extensively over several weeks to see for myself whether the lore about a horn is well founded or not. Horns to the point that I often bring a horn in to rebuild just so that when To think they've substantiated their hearsay formed bias. They have only had one pulled-off a music store shelf and tooted it long enough Played the horns they feel most negative about. Of which, unfortunately, there is quite aīit floating about, having been spread by lore-mongers who often haven't even One of the things I most enjoy about what I do