Re: Re: Re: Conn - vs. Besson- sousaphone


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Posted by Then looks deceive on January 01, 2004 at 07:10:41:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Conn - vs. Besson- sousaphone posted by Paul Scott on December 31, 2003 at 22:06:32:

I once played a Martin sousa that looked exactly like a 38K (i.e. no short valves), in fact, it was one of a group of sousas, all but one of which were Conns a 38K and some 20Ks. The only way to tell the Martin and the 38K apart were the engraving, the valve buttons, and some bracing ornamentation. Similarly, the big Martin recording basses (like the ones made for the Navy Band in the late '50s) are very very similar to the long stroke valve counterparts to the 24K. Again, bracing differs a bit as do a few other details, but the horns look, from up close, almost identical. Martin was located in Elkhart, near Conn, and IIRC, used an old Conn factory. Is it possible that Martin had former Conn tooling? sure.




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