Conn 8D Abilene Horns

[Tjenchew Lee]

I've often heard that Conn 8D horns made between 1967 and 1974 (i.e. Abilene
Horns) are inferior to the regular 8D's. In what ways are they inferior and
how would they compare with other horns?

[Erik Siverson]

As far as playing is concerned,Abilene instruments may play well and
some are in use by professionals. However, their resale value is much
less than the Elkhart instruments, for reasons explained below.

Conn moved to Abilene for the advantage of using local labor who were
willing to work for less than the experienced workers in Elkhart.
However, the workmanship (assembly, soldering, finishing, and machining)
is considered to be of inferior quality in comparison with the Elkhart
instruments since the Abilene workers were largely inexperienced and
unskilled. Most importantly, when Conn moved to Abilene, they
discontinued the process of tapering the rotors and cylinders of their
rotary valves in order to save time and lower costs in the manufacturing
process.

If the instrument is marked C.G. Conn Ltd. USA with no reference to
Elkhart Indiana, then it is an Abilene horn.

For your information: C.G. Conn moved its production of professional
line low brasses to Abilene in August of 1972, (Not 1967 as some
incorrect serial number lists indicate.)

Erik Siverson

[Charles Turner]

On Wed, 9 Dec 1998 01:44:37 -0500, Tjenchew Lee wrote:

>I've often heard that Conn 8D horns made between 1967 and 1974 (i.e. Abilene
>Horns) are inferior to the regular 8D's. In what ways are they inferior and
>how would they compare with other horns?

I have never played one. Some things I've heard said about them are that the
quality of their assembly was variable, and that the valve rotors are not
tapered. Apparently non tapered rotors, when they wear after some years, are
more expensive to repair than tapered rotors.

However, I believe David Jolly plays a Texas 8D; he is a great player so
presumably his Texas 8D is a good one. A Texas 8D could be a good buy if one
shops carefully.

I think that 1967 date is too early for Texas. My "L" series was built in
Elkhart in 1968. I think the "M" serial numbers (1970) were the last of this
series, so maybe the Texas move occurred for the 1971 models.

[Tholian]

I have been playing on an Abilene Conn for almost twenty years (bought it
new in 1978). I've stuck with it all this time for several reasons, ranging
from not being able to afford anything else in my poverty-stricken student
days, to just being a stubborn cuss, to actually liking the thing.

Mr. Siverson is absolutely correct, though, about the resale value. I will
never be able to get out of this horn what I put into it. Eventually, I
became very unsatisfied with the performance of the valves and had Lawson
replate AND taper the rotors, after which there were no further problems.
But it was extremely expensive. I also began to feel limited by poor
intonation and a somewhat erratic scale, and a McCracken leadpipe improved
these things a great deal. In recent years, I have been plagued by broken
braces, and in one case, the "water" slide (upper l.h. as you are looking at
the front of the horn) fell apart in my hands and had to be rebuilt. This
odd behavior, no doubt, is due to the less-than-perfect workmanship.

After 19 years, here is what I've found about my Abilene horn....
Advantages: extremely heavy bell able to easily handle ffff dynamics;
greater resistance than most Elkhart horns makes it a little easier to play
very soft; sound does not tend towards "tubbiness" and therefore does not
offend my colleagues who "hate" Conns (and there are a lot of those people
in the profession); blends well with small brass horns, believe it or not.
Disadvantages: wildly uneven intonation until I put the McCracken
leadpipe on it; "slotting" of notes is not the least bit uniform, increasing
the difficulty of playing accurately; heaviness/resistance of the horn is a
distinct disadvantage for most French music (Ravel Piano Concerto, in
particular, is a horror); the horn is simply hard to play, there's no way
around it.

I have just bought a mint condition N-Series, my first new horn in all this
time, and while I will probably keep the Texas horn for certain things, I
can already tell that the far superior workmanship of the Elkhart model is
going to make it my primary instrument very soon.

my .02,

Tholian

Domain spelled phonetically to avoid spambots;
Make the obvious corrections to email me

[skb...@aol.com]

Curious about the McCracken leadpipe- considering it for my 8D. Did you think it made a remarkable difference? Falling out of love with my horn. Currently playing on a 6D - love the sound.