 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2011-05-05 11:20
I have a friend who was given an old Conn clarinet, and he wants to start playing. I'm not sure if it's hard rubber or plastic, and after looking at it, I'm guessing that it dates back to the 50s (he's not sure how old it is). I couldn't find a model name on it. The pads and corks look like all right (although only a repair person can tell for sure), but the the clarinet is extremely stuffy. I tried a variety of mouthpiece and reed combinations on it, but it didn't make a difference.
I have no experience with old Conns. For those of you who have played them, are they all like this? Would getting new pads and corks make a difference, or does my friend have a piece of worthless junk?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ursa
Date: 2011-05-05 12:08
On my '50s Conn/Pan American, the model number (58N) is followed immediately by the serial number. The 58N is a hard rubber clarinet. Other Conns I've owned and examined have the model number and serial number on the underside the left hand F#/C# touchpiece. Conn clarinets have an N following the model number.
Your friend's Conn needs servicing. Vintage Conns are large-bore instruments that are not stuffy at all.
Note that SOME of these horns have soft metal keys that are easily bent. If your friend's Conn is so equipped, I'd start him off on something else with strong forged nickel-silver keywork, such as a Vito.
Honestly, I wouldn't bother fixing up a plastic Conn with the soft metal keys. The hard rubber instruments are interesting; one with the soft keys can still be fun when handled with appropriate care.
Cheers...Ursa
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2011-05-05 13:31
My 1957 wooden Conn Director has cast smelter keys that aren't easily bent at all. Nope, they get metal fatigue and then they break, ka-chunk. When the clarinet was about six or seven years old, the right-hand pinkie C lever snapped right off due to metal fatigue, during normal orchestra playing. A good repairman cast me a replacement key.
My dad bought me that intermediate-quality clarinet new when I first started as a beginner. The original Conn mouthpiece was a hunk of junk. With a modern Hite Premiere mouthpiece, the clarinet plays much better than it did when I was a child, although it's got such extremely wide 12ths that lipping up the chalumeau and flattening the clarion are constant battles. I think the wide 12ths are nearly universal on the student-quality Conns from the 1950s whether they're wood or plastic. (After C. G. Conn's widow sold the company, the new owner of the Conn brand name made only student-quality and "step-up" intermediate clarinets.) Because of this intonation hassle, I only keep that clarinet for the sake of nostalgia. Professionally re-padding the instrument would cost more than it's worth, btw.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2011-05-05 13:34)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: BobD
Date: 2011-05-05 21:00
Having had some small experience with Conns my opinion is that there are other clarinets that are better candidates for your friend. You really have to love Conns to put up with them.
Bob Draznik
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ursa
Date: 2011-05-05 22:15
Bob D is right; there are many, many entry-level clarinets out there that would better serve a beginner than an old Conn.
I have found only a few mouthpieces that play in tune on my old 58N.
The keywork on old Conns tends to have longer travel and requires a more heavy-handed technique to actuate versus more modern designs. The action on them tends to be slow unless one opts for rather stiff spring tensions.
The left-hand F/C lever on both of my old Conns is particularly non-responsive and requires a lot of effort to actuate.
I keep my 58N around for big band use, an application for which it truly excels. With a Brilhart Tonalin 4 mouthpiece, it is shockingly loud--I have no trouble at all keeping up with our amply-manned trumpet section. It's nice to able to throttle back on the volume, carefully shape the tone and float the sound on top of the ensemble, yet still have enough sound getting out there to not be overpowered by the brasses.
If not for that particular redeeming quality, I'd have no use at all for the horn.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: martind
Date: 2011-05-08 16:05
My first clarinet was a H.N. White/Cleveland, OH hard rubber, simple system instrument purchased in 1946 from a private owner. My elementary experience last two years with this instrument before I started high school in '47. I soon discovered the boehm system clarinet and purchased the
one piece metal Cavalier clarinet/Elkhart, IN. After one year, my father
purchased a new Conn/Pan American plastic clarinet from a local vendor. This instrument was a vast improvement over the metal Cavalier. My Conn experience came about my junior year of high school. One of my band mates sold her Conn 444N/wood clarinet to me. This was my first professional instrument and served me well beyond graduation and never encountered any mechanical problems. My tone quality and intonation on this instrument was definately above average. This is my Conn experience!
Martin
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: clonestar
Date: 2012-12-23 18:45
I have an old Conn Pan American clarinet (not the wooden or "propeller wood" model) with a serial number: 138707. Because of a very small chipped portion at the top of the barrel, I am thinking that it's probably a bakelite type of material because all of the pieces have a generally dull finish and the chip doesn't have the same kind of appearance that I've seen on similar chipped areas on clarinets made with more modern ABS materials (Bakelite was an early plastic).
I've looked at a number of Conn serial number lists online. the conn-selmer.com site indicates a manufacture year of 1924. However, two other online lists both indicate that it was manufactured in 1926. To compound the confusion, one blog posting at: www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Equipment/HowOld/BBBC.html states that those serial # lists do NOT apply to the PanAmerican model and, further, that there are actually no serial # lists available for the PanAmerican. I wonder if anyone here could help identify the correct year of manufacture. BTW, it looks like it might make a decent beginner clarinet (the seller put it into a new case) and I'm planning to restore it in order to donate to a needy child for the start of the 2013-2014 school year. I'd appreciate any and all information or opinions out there on this particular instrument. Many thanks to all of you.
Don
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Steve H
Date: 2022-02-09 08:22
To resurrect an old thread, I came up on a wood-bodied Director, 1957. I don't know if it's ever been used (end cork looks untouched) but the keys have corroded in many areas poorly, although most of the pads look immaculate including the original cork register keypad. Do you think I could find better quality keys and swap them out from a cheaper plastic body version or are they not interchangeable?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jdbassplayer
Date: 2022-02-09 17:06
In most cases I've found that keys are rarely interchangeable between older instruments, even ones of the same model. The amount of effort spend swapping keys and fully overhauling the instrument (you would absolutely need to after swapping keys) would be better spent fixing up an old Noblet or Yamaha 34.
-JDbassplayer
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Steve H
Date: 2022-02-11 08:14
Agreed. After taking it apart I realized they could cleaned up pretty good. Amazingly, all (nine) of the little tiny set screws and end screws came out without effort. It'll be a good daily driver and it has been a good practice piece to disassemble.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
