TromboneChat

Hi All,
I've got a Conn Director 18h and I'm trying to find from which year it is.

The slide and the bell have different serial numbers, so I would like to know if it's normal that this happens?
Or are these just simply put together by someone?

I've also noticed the bell serial has a leading number 2 in front of the 6 number serial.
Anyone who knows what that 2 means?

The bell: 2 402739
The slide: 819700
I found a Conn Brass serial list, according to that list the bell should be from 1952 and the slide from 1959
Which brings me back at the question, is it normal to have 2 different serials.

Futher details:
The slide has Director engraved on it.
The bell has Conn 18H engraved on it.

P.s. Thanks for letting me part of this forum, happy to hear from you all!

That looks like mismatched parts, but an 18h is still a Director. A 50s 18h was a Coprion horn and the later 18h that you seem to have is yellow brass. Still a Director (student model).

Normal? Well consider the rough use they get from students. Could have been rental units where the decided that repairs to the bell of one and the slide of another were not cost effective given the value of the instruments. So salvage by putting the two good bits together. Clearly not done at the factory, but not abnormal after over 50 years.

hyperbolica wrote: ↑Thu Jun 09, 2022 7:42 am That looks like mismatched parts, but an 18h is still a Director. A 50s 18h was a Coprion horn and the later 18h that you seem to have is yellow brass. Still a Director (student model).

Didn't knew they changed from Coprion to yellow brass, this means my bell is a Coprion and my slide is a yellow brass? Would you see the difference?

blap73 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 09, 2022 8:02 am Normal? Well consider the rough use they get from students. Could have been rental units where the decided that repairs to the bell of one and the slide of another were not cost effective given the value of the instruments. So salvage by putting the two good bits together. Clearly not done at the factory, but not abnormal after over 50 years.

Already thought something like this indeed, just wanted to be sure.

I'm living in the Netherlands, bought the horn from someone who liked to travel to the USA and find some nice horns to repair and maintain them and then sell it in the Netherlands.
Unfortunately he couldn't tell me much about the origin.

Anybody knows where the 2 stands for in the bell serial?

Floeske wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 1:02 am ... this means my bell is a Coprion and my slide is a yellow brass? Would you see the difference?

No, your slide was probably mated to a Coprion bell at some point in its life. Coprion is just pure copper, so it's a bright reddish orange. Very distinctive looking.

hyperbolica wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 6:51 am

Floeske wrote: ↑Fri Jun 10, 2022 1:02 am ... this means my bell is a Coprion and my slide is a yellow brass? Would you see the difference?

No, your slide was probably mated to a Coprion bell at some point in its life. Coprion is just pure copper, so it's a bright reddish orange. Very distinctive looking.

Looks like it's yellow brass then, googled for Coprion images and compared it to mine.
Mine is no like that copper colour reddish

A bell labeled 18H would be much newer than the 1950s. I believe the model numbers started getting engraved on the bell some 40 years later. Conn "reset" the serial numbers, and went through a bunch of different systems of serial numbers in the 1970s and 1980s. And a yellow brass 18H would be consistent with much more recent vintage. A true 18H from the 1960s would have had a Coprion bell (copper color). Note that Coprion was only used for bells. Slides had yellow brass outers and chrome plated inners.

That's interesting, Do you maybe know what the different system of serial numbers in the 70s/80s is? Really would like to know from what year(s) my composed Conn is.

Some serial number info including later years can be found at: https://www.horn-u-copia.net/serial/Connlist.html