Collection completed: Conn bass trombone bells in all colors

[meine]

Hello all,

I could make a new horn day today, but none of these horns here is new
The story behind them: some time ago I thought how cool it would be to own bass trombones with Conn bells made in all 4 colors ever made (as much as I know). It took me more than 4 years to get them all and here they are! I‘m not a big fan of playing vintage horns in the way they are made. I like the modern „chassis“ better and so all have new „chassis“ and most of them are made with modern Thein parts. But I‘m a big fan of vintage Conn bass trombone bells! I had a lot of different bells and horns but in the end I like the Conn bells or belled horns the most. So here is my little collection of quite rare Conn bells. From left to right:

- Conn 62H sterling bell 9.85“ with Thein offline valve section. The most heavy and best playing bell. Made around 2001/2002 when Conn planed to rerelease the 62H. Conn made around a half a dozen of the sterling silver bells and I had incredible luck to get one in 2018 from Sweden. I had mounted it on the Thein Universal bass trombone and it fits perfect! The engraving and the gold inner bell wash was made by BAC in 2019. It plays incredible well. I can push it as much as I can and it just plays just louderThe sound is really dense with a big core. I really like it very much.

- Conn 70H yellow brass bell 9.5“ from the 1950s. The most light bell. I got this one this year and after some time not knowing how to „modernize“ the other parts I decided to let mount it on the Thein valve section. I‘m not a big fan of light bells, but this one is good. I‘ll get a new lighter valve section from Thein next year. I guess this could work quite well.

- Conn 70H Fuchs gold brass bell 9.25“ from 1927. My oldest bell/horn I have. I got this last year from Austria and decided quite fast what to do. Some years ago I promised Matt from M&W Custom trombones to do a project with him and this one is it! I had to wait nearly a year to get my favorite valves installed on it and it plays incredible well! Super cool open sound which can be pushed hard without getting bad. The handslide is a dream with its age and the Hagmann gen II valves are just great. Thank you Matt for your work

- Conn 62H Elkhart red brass bell 9.5“. I got this one in 2019 from Canada. It had some original Thayers inline installed which was absolutely not my cup of tea. With my local tec I decided to cut away everything I would not need to make fit it to my Thein Bartok valve section. The result was quite interesting. I let cut away as less as possible to save as much as possible of the j-bend. It is made to fit the gooseneck of the Thein valve section. To pitch it in tune I have to move the whole bell which makes it quite tricky to play. But after some time it was no problem any more. This 62H sound big and warm is very flexible and makes a lot of fun.

I hope you enjoy the photos and stories of these horn as much as I appreciate them Thanks for reading

[Thrawn22]

Nice!

[Finetales]

Dependent Hagmanns and a Conn sterling silver bell with full engraving and gold wash...that's gotta be one of the coolest-looking trombones ever.

[meine]

Dependent Hagmanns and a Conn sterling silver bell with full engraving and gold wash...that's gotta be one of the coolest-looking trombones ever.

Thanks! And for me one if not the best playing ever had

[Kbiggs]

Nice!

[Crazy4Tbone86]

The Bartok bell is really cool!

[MStarke]

Nice collection!

Do you use them for different settings/use cases and if yes, can you describe those?

[JKno]

Beautiful collection! The gold wash is just amazing!

[meine]

Nice collection!

Do you use them for different settings/use cases and if yes, can you describe those?

Yes, the sterling silver belled Conn/Thein is my main horn. It is the most difficult to play and so if I can handle that axe the other ones are easier to play. I mostly used it in british styled bassbands, but could use it in wind bands too. The red brassed 62H is used mostly if I have brass quintet gigs or marching events. It‘s the lightest and so that‘s the reason I use it mostly during summer. The yellow belled 70H is quite new to me. Playing it alone it has a wonderful rich sound I like very much, but playing it in a trombone section it blends not so good. I guess I habe to play it more often.
The Fuchs I played just 2 times, in the wind band and in brass quintet. So easy to play! It blens wonderful in all registers and isn‘t too heavy at all. I‘ll get a rebuild handslide soon and hope to enjoy it much more in the future.