Conn 88H Question

[Finewine]

Hello,
I'm hoping someone might be able to help me. I have recently bought a rather vintage Conn 88H trombone for my daughter. It looks to be in good condition and plays well. But I just wanted to check that I do actually have a 'kosher' 88h and not some hybrid mix. The bell says CG CONN Artists Symphony, USA (apparently dating from the 80s?), but I can't find a serial number. The slide is older, I have found a serial number on that - B70059 - which doesn't seem to match up with any Conn numbers that I can find on line. Any advice/detective work gratefully received. Thank you!

[Matt K]

Topic split: Moved to it's own topic.

[tbonesullivan]

Do you have any pictures of the bell engraving and/or serial number? If the horn is worn, numbers and letters can often become obscured,

[wayne88ny]

During this era, Conn used the first letter of the serial number to indicate the decade, the second letter to indicate the month, the first digit to indicate the year of production and the remaining digits are a sequence number. You seem to be missing the first letter of the serial number. The first letter should be "H", indicating the instrument was made in the 1980's. (The instruments made in the later 1970's (first letter "G") had a first digit of "9", indicating it was a trombone and so had 6 digits rather than 5. For your horn, H = 1980's, B = February, 7 = (198)7. So the trombone slide was the made in February 1987. The Conn Bells don't have serial numbers. By the way, there are usually two (mostly) matching serial numbers on the slide. One above the cork barrel and the other on the outer slide; It's hidden by the cork barrel when the slide is fully closed. The first letter ifs often missing on one of the serial numbers.