This is a very nice 1970 Connstellation it is a 38B with a 5 1/8” bell. The bell on this horn is an Electro –D bell and it has a Coprion seamless leadpipe. A former Conn employee said that an Electro-D bell was a brass bell, electrolytically plated with copper, and then electrolytically plated with nickel. This horn is also nickel plated with brass trim. It has just been given a professional valve alignment. The valves are smooth with good compression and it plays well. It is offered for sale here for $ 900. The horn has a nice dark clear tone. Maynard Ferguson played a 38 B in the day and achieved some of his nicest sounding tracks playing on it. The Conn Loyalist website puts forth, “A professional symphony orchestra trumpet player describes his 1966 38B as follows:
- General pitch is really very good; high register doesn’t go up, but strangely enough the F above high C (played without valves) is a tad flat, almost beyond the possibility of bending. There is almost no “click” between G and A above high C that most other trumpets have!
- Even triggering the low F is spot on pitch-wise. Just for fun I lowered the main slide to A pitch, and that works fine also….. (Has it been designed for that purpose?).
- Resistance is very low when playing mf or softer, giving the impression of being a large bore trumpet.
- Resistance gets gradually higher (but never too high) when playing louder. This IMO really helps the high register a lot. The high register is amazingly easy.
- Slurs/intervals seem to be closer together than with any other trumpet I have ever played. A strange but nice sensation.
- The valve action is smoooooth.
- Every detail of this trumpet has clearly been built to last for ever. I’m sure it’ll easily survive another 41 years.
The following link also talks about the Connstellation trumpets.
http://web.mac.com/lipshurt/lipshurt.com/Connstellations.html
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