Commentary about Conn bass saxophone design evolution
Conn built their bass saxophones for approximately 40 years 4 , therefore, like in any of the other saxophone voices, we are bound to see variations. However, unlike altos, tenors, and even baris, with bass saxophones the numbers are simply too small to make broad conclusions like: horn X is a transitional horn, or all Series II horns have feature Y.
Furthermore, as Uwe points out 5, because Conn had bass saxes in their warehouse that were only assigned a serial number later, it is not uncommon to see a horn with a serial number you would expect to find in a Series II era bass, but with Series I era features.
Based on what I’ve seen while researching the Conn saxophones for this page, the bass saxophones that Conn had in their warehouse were not necessarily finished ones. Instead they were likely in various states of completion, with some being body tubes only. As orders came in, keys and other features would then be fitted to the horn—resulting in what some may (I would suggest wrongly) call transitional horns.
This would be the most likely explanation for horns such as the following bass sold by Instrument Attic on eBay in October 2015:
Model: ?
Serial #: 56518
Finish: 1 (“Silver & Gold”)
Key touches: MOP
Tone holes: Soldered
Water key: Absent
Fork Eb: Present
Neck attachment: from the top, like on a bari
Range: Bb – Eb
Description from eBay:
This magnificent low-pitch CG Conn Ltd bass saxophone has just been fully restored: it’s stunningly gorgeous, a dream to play, and very collectible with its original case, mouthpiece, and matching numbers.
Conns are known as the best vintage bass saxes, and you’ll notice this one is a very rare “Finish 1” with hand-burnished, gold-plated keys, rods, interior of bell, and background of bell engraving, all on a quadruple silver plated “velvet” finish body.
The sax has been very well cared for and maintained over the years, and was most recently owned for decades by a professional symphony musician. It has matching serial numbers on the body, neck, and octave key. It appears to have been originally owned by the US military, as it has matching characters engraved on each side of the bow fin as well as beneath the neck cork. The original case and “Eagle” mouthpiece are each very highly valued, but I will only sell them together with this collector horn.
This horn is a beautiful example of how we can see a mix and match bunch of features in some Conn bass saxophones. My best guess would be that it was built with a New Invention or Wonder Improved body tube, since it is lacking the 1914 Haynes patent. Therefore, regardless of any other features it may or may not have, it is NOT a New Wonder. Period. Full stop.
The evolution of Conn bass saxophone design features
As noted, Conn’s design of their bass saxophones did not stagnate. As a matter of fact, their design evolved quite a bit in the nearly 40 years of bass production.
Although by no means a complete list, here is an illustrated, partial listing of the features that I’ve found:
Haynes Patent Stamp
This is the big one. It denotes drawn—and most commonly rolled—tone holes. Prior to this, the saxes had soldered tone holes.
Water Keys
The early bass saxes did not have a water key. According to Uwe Ladwig, 6 that feature was added in 1920.
Bis Bb key
The bis Bb was added the same year as the water key: 1920.7
Fork Eb
Conn bass saxophones had their fork Eb key located at the front of the bow—basically opposite to the Eb tone hole located at the back of the bow. According to players this led to a cleaner Eb, unlike the fuzzy note that was associated with Buescher’s location of the key on the left side of the body tube. (Which often led to the key being corked shut to prevent leaking.)
Sink trap neck
It was in 1925 that Conn changed their bass sax design to incorporate a sink trap neck. According to Uwe Ladwig, this resulted in the instrument being 2,5 cm shorter overall. The tone hole array had been modified previously. 8
High F
It was in 1926/27 that the desirable high F was added to the 14M New Wonder Series II bass saxophone.9 Prior to this the Conn bass saxes were keyed to high Eb only, and had their left palm keys in a different layout.
Right-sided bell keys
It was circa. 1930 that the low B and Bb were moved to the right side of the bell. 10
Left pinkie cluster
While researching Conn bass saxophones through their evolution to the coveted 14M series, I have observed a number of different left pinkie clusters. They ranged from the primitive, like this one, with 2 rollers, from the earliest model (Wonder Improved); to a slightly more improved version, with 3 rollers on this [presumptive] New Invention; to the greatly improved cluster, with 4 rollers from the New Wonder Series I; and then finally the New Wonder Series II with its nail file G#.
Octave key shape
NB: It should be noted here that all the horns I have seen have automatic octave mechanisms. Are there bass saxophones that have 2 manual octave keys? Quite possibly. I just haven’t seen any.
To date I have observed 2 different kinds of octave key shapes in the Conn bass saxophones. The earliest is kind of a teardrop. The second is shaped around the left thumb rest button. However, early NW basses still had the old style teardrop octave lever. Like other features on the bass saxophones from Conn, there is not necessarily a clear delineation of when this feature changed from one to another.
Bell to body X bracing
A quick and dirty way for players to recognize if someone is playing a Conn bass sax is to look for the bell to body X bracing. However, before Conn started using the 2 X braces, they used a single conventional bell to body brace on their bass saxophones.
From what I have observed these X braces coincide with the New Wonder Series I horns, and then carried on for the rest of the production run.
Neck X brace
At some point in the production of the sink trap neck, Conn added an X brace. Earlier versions, such as New Wonder Series II, 154026, that Brian at Get A Sax sold, clearly doesn’t have it.
Stencils & second line horns
Conn made their own second line brand, Pan American, as well as stencil horns, for a great many manufacturers. This are discussed separately on the Second Line & Stencil Bass Saxophones By Conn page.
4 Source: Saxophone: Ein Kompendium, Fifth Edition, Uwe Ladwig, page 33.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
