Klarinet Archive - Posting 000685.txt from 2000/09

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl]Conn "Naked Lady" Saxophones
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 19:26:22 -0400

Frank Garcia wrote,
>I was wondering if anyone could give me any information about Conn Naked
>Lady Saxophones. Were they professional model saxes? Are they collectible?
>When were they made? etc. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks for your
>help.

"Naked lady" C. G. Conns are high-quality professional saxes, the 6M altos,
10M tenors and 12M baritones made in the 1930s. They were (still are!)
popular among Big Band swing players and jazz sax players. The best of them
have a big tone and they project well. They're called "Naked Ladies" because
of a decorative engraving on the bell of a woman's face, neck and shoulders,
or sometimes upper torso. Sax players disagree about whether it's only a
myth that the more of the naked lady that shows on the sax, the better the
instrument! These were hand engravings, so IMHO, probably the engraver just
followed his whims. An extra-ornate engraving can raise the value, though.

I think the most sought-after ladies are serial numbers roughly in the range
of 260,000 through about 300,000, i.e. between about 1934 and the beginning
of WWII. I'm an amateur and no eggspurt, though, so here are two sites with
information about Conn (and other) saxes. These sites have links to other
good sites.

Sax Gallery
http://members.xoom.com/saxgallery/conn.htm#Home

Steve Goodsen's Sax Gourmet site
http://www.saxgourmet.com

Regarding the suggested values listed on the second site (a dealer's site),
the webmaster there advises that people should not assume every Naked Lady
will be worth as much as the approximate values. Those values represent a
likely maximum for the finest, mint condition instruments, ready to play
right now. There few saxes that old in pristine condition. Repair and
restoration bills add up fast. Some vintage saxes are so beat-up that they'd
cost more to repair than they're worth, and even then they might never play
well again. Also, all models of saxes include a few lemons that never played
well when new, either.

Vintage saxes aren't for everybody. Modern players sometimes find old key
designs obsolete, and awkward to play, among other things. But yes, they're
collectible. Some people are fanatics about old Conns and the Naked Ladies
have a great reputation. I'm an amateur. I play and love an even earlier
generation of Conns, the "Chu Berry" saxes from the mid to late 1920s.

BTW, the Conn family no longer owns the brand name. The Conns being
manufactured today are UMI student-quality instruments, unrelated to the
vintage C. G. Conns.

Lelia
~~~~~~~~~~
Byron Elbows' two rules of human nature: No one is as weird as they think
they are. Everyone is weirder than others think they are.
~~~~~~~~~~

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