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Saxophones Conn C melody chu berry

Punchysax

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Hi,
Been looking at the 1926 Conn Chu berry style Cmelody straight neck sax. Any experiences out there on tone and what their like in general?
regards
 
I love mine. Tone is very flexible and highly dependent on player and mouthpiece just like any other sax. I get more of a tenor sound on a tenor mouthpiece and more of an alto sound on a c-mel mouthpiece.

For me, I have to drop a wine cork in the bell to help with the low end gurgle, and have to work to play a clean high G. My altissimo intonation is also a challenge, where my tenor fingerings need to be tweaked a little.

Overall tone is beautiful, and ergos are obviously typical of horns of that era (no G#/C# linkage, in-line keys, etc). I hate the micro tuner since it limits mouthpiece choices to those with short shanks. And none of my alto mouthpieces fit at all.

Lastly, decent, affordable, modern cases are hard to come by. In the C-mel forum on n SOTW, you’ll see a thread about the one I bought and am very happy with. But it cost as much as my horn.

Welcome to the c-melody club.
 
My Conn C-melody has a serial number of 99,xxx which apparently means it is from 1922-23. It is finished in nickel plate in good condition and has the long straight neck including the tuner end fitting.

It plays nicely, with a sweet but subdued tone and reasonable tuning which depends on the mouthpiece. My favourite mouthpiece is a Pillinger C-mel but the Morgan C-mel is also good.

My other C-mel is a rare one from the 1960s marked Vito and made by Beaugnier. Its design appears very close to the Conn and I wouldn't be surprised if they based the body tube and neck on the Conn.

Here is my Vito C-mel in a video made by its previous owner (but I believe the music was played on an old Martin C-mel). You can see the bell keys are on the right side.
View: https://youtu.be/R8dOewmS9k4


Rhys
 

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Beautiful yes these horns sound great , pulled the trigger 1926 conn c melody immaculte condition and fully repaded collecting Wednesday

Any idea on what mouthpiece comes with it ? I never got on with alto mouthpieces and not many tenor pieces. A very old Selmer metal tenor piece was sort of OK but a proper C-mel piece makes a big difference for me.

Rhys
 
Rubber Otto link alto piece. I read Claude Lakey meant to be suitable , Runyon c melody meant to be good .
 
Beautiful yes these horns sound great , pulled the trigger 1926 conn c melody immaculte condition and fully repaded collecting Wednesday
Don’t compare it to anything. Enjoy playing it for what it is. Plan on a month getting friendly with it.
 
Rubber Otto link alto piece. I read Claude Lakey meant to be suitable , Runyon c melody meant to be good .
Interesting. I've tried several alto mouthpiece on my Conn, and they don't even fit on the neck. If you ever run across a Runyon C melody and you don't grab it first, please let me know.
 
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Here she is , a beauty . The case has a name plaque on Bessie A Morse looks like a early owner who knows 20,s or 30,s
5DC6AC86-52FB-414D-94B9-D6565D80B46B.jpeg
 
Looks very nice. If you have any issues playing at all check the neck fit first. You can do this by placing a rubber glove over the bell. Hold or wedge all the keys closed. A little suction on the mouthpiece end will bring the glove down the bell and should hold vacuum for at least 30 seconds.
1638403109132.jpeg
 
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