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| 1927 Conn New Wonder II Soprano Saxophone Eric Seddon Collection |
I've played Soprano Sax for over twenty years now, and most of that time my axe was a beautiful Yamaha Soprano YSS-675 with two necks -- one straight and one curved. I've used both of those necks over the years, for different occasions. That horn has a beautiful, round, golden tone and plays very well in tune. Then, one day, my good friend, fellow reed man and jazz historian John Richmond told me he was selling one of his vintage sopranos. At the time I thought he was interested in selling his 1927 Buescher. I said I wasn't interested. I thought the Yamaha was giving me what I wanted, so why should I switch?
Well, John wasn't to be discouraged by me waiving him off just once. He sat in with my band one night and brought the horn, encouraging me to play it on a tune. I'm certain it was the Buescher. I played it and really liked how much lighter it was in the hand than the Yamaha, which is a very heavy instrument comparatively. I had to wear a neck strap for the Yamaha, and even then, sometimes my right hand would be in pain if I played too long. The Buescher was much more comfortable, but I still wasn't looking to spend the money.
After that, though, the experience started working on my mind. The months went by and I'd daydream about having a vintage horn like that Buescher, with a less mainstream sound, and some more depth and color. I just couldn't get the experience out of my head, so I called John one day about ten months later and asked if the Buescher was still for sale.
He said that he'd decided to keep it, and instead wanted to move his 1927 Conn. Initially I was a bit disappointed, but went over to his place and tried the Conn in his kitchen. I knew immediately it was the horn for me. I took it on trial, then bought if from him after playing it on a gig at BLU Jazz + in Akron.
I'll always be grateful to John for selling it to me, because this horn is the one I've always needed. It has so many layers of depth to the sound, so many potential timbres, and such overwhelming power when needed. Before this, in retrospect, I could never get the the variety of colors and expression on soprano sax that came easily on clarinet. Once this horn came into my life, though, that all changed. I was able to play with the nuance I was accustomed to -- mostly because of that sound world a 1927 Conn yields.
John Richmond's Buescher is a beautiful horn too, and I would have purchased it if it had been for sale that day. But I got lucky he wanted to keep that one. A Buescher is very powerful, and has a very good sound, but doesn't have that Conn beautifully full round tone. In other words, I find that I can get all sorts of styles out of the Conn -- brash, strong, and attacking, or round, warm, and floating. The Buescher didn't seem to have quite have the full range for me.
Now some caveats, for those who might be interested:
The Conn New Wonder II is not a beginner's horn, and it's not an intermediate horn. You need some real skill to control and tame it. It's a wild ride compared to models being made today and took me several months of adjusting to it before I felt confident playing an entire gig with it. I had to adjust my air and embouchure to obtain the same level of intonation I'd had on the Yamaha.
Early on I was told a vintage horn like this wouldn't play in tune if I didn't match it with a vintage mouthpiece. After a couple of attempts down that road, I slapped a brand new 2019 Selmer D on it and it played much better than the vintage pieces. So depending on the player, that idea that you have to have a vintage piece is pretty much a myth. I doubt I'll bother with any other mouthpiece than the Selmer D I've got on it now.
The ergonomics of this horn are, likewise, much different than modern horns. First and foremost, the most noticeable difference: these horns have thumb rings instead of the more conventional thumb rest.
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| Thumb Ring of a 1927 Conn Soprano Sax Eric Seddon Collection |
This was, for me, the biggest hurdle to even wanting to buy the horn. If the sound hadn't been so drop dead beautiful, I'd have let it go over this. At first, I thought of altering the horn and installing a modern thumb rest, but that seemed like desecration. Then I considered inserting some materials to cushion the ring. The first week I played the horn it was uncomfortable and I was really very serious about finding a solution, when suddenly it felt great. I'd adjusted somehow, and now for me it's preferable to have the ring rather than a modern thumb rest. My advice to any player switching over to a New Wonder II is to simply give it some time before deciding to do anything. It is a very lightweight horn comparatively speaking, and your hand might get used to it quickly, as mine did.
The palm keys were another hurdle. Conn seemed to think that because it was a smaller horn, everything ought to be smaller, including the palm keys. I'm sure some players have rigged up extenders on their NWIIs, but I've opted to retrain myself on the horn and just deal with the smaller, closer, palm keys. I don't intend to play anything other soprano from here on out, so a shift to a different size is manageable. But that particular ergonomic difficulty is real. If I had bigger hands, it would be even more of a problem.
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| 1927 Conn New Wonder II detail: Palm Keys Eric Seddon Collection |
If the palm keys seemed a curse, the spatula keys were a blessing for me. Like the palm keys, they were smaller, and with my background in clarinet giving me highly developed pinky coordination, it made them much easier to play. This won't be the case for every player, of course, but for me it was great.
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| 1927 Conn New Wonder II detail: Spatula Keys Eric Seddon Collection |
Vintage instruments aren't for everyone. If you're looking to blend with a modern section, or want something sleek and contemporary that plays in tune easily, this might not be your horn. But if you're a soloist who plays mostly New Orleans style or small combo straight ahead jazz, and you're looking for a horn that give you all kinds of tonal options, layers, depth, and personality, and if you are lucky enough to be able to get your hands on one of these, you might have just found your Stradivarius. They simply don't make them like this anymore and when you hold one, you have in your hands a horn that Sidney Bechet also played, and that harkens back to an era when jazz reigned supreme, and the American instrument making business was second to none when it came to saxophones. To hold it is hold history, and you can feel it when you play one.
My horn was the frosted silver model, with gold wash bell. It's got a nice patina to it now, and I don't dare polish it at this point--don't want to mess with the sound at all. But if you look, you can still see the last of that rose color in the bell.
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| photo credit: Elisa Seddon |
For me, this horn has opened up new vistas of expression. I recommend any serious player, if they can, try one. There aren't many left, so get these beauties while you still can.
