1938 Conn 4M Curved Soprano
The seldomly seen Conn 4M Soprano. I've seen exactly one this one here. This is the cutest toughest horn ever manufactured. It plays exceedingly well, especially now after all the work I did to it. This horn was damaged in shipping: The neck was pulled down, the body tube was bent and the bend was compound, the solder joint at the neck broke, the Eb key guard was crushed and the silver solder joint on one of the flanges broke, the posts in the upper stack were significantly out of alignment and the upper stack hardly moved. In addition to all this damage from shipping - it was simply time for serious work. It needed all new springs, key fitting, and a couple extensions as well as one new over sized rod.
Many people have suspicions about the intonation of vintage sopranos, the 4M included and perhaps at the top of the list. I have included four photos
The seldomly seen Conn 4M Soprano. I've seen exactly one this one here. This is the cutest toughest horn ever manufactured. It plays exceedingly well, especially now after all the work I did to it. This horn was damaged in shipping: The neck was pulled down, the body tube was bent and the bend was compound, the solder joint at the neck broke, the Eb key guard was crushed and the silver solder joint on one of the flanges broke, the posts in the upper stack were significantly out of alignment and the upper stack hardly moved. In addition to all this damage from shipping - it was simply time for serious work. It needed all new springs, key fitting, and a couple extensions as well as one new over sized rod.
Many people have suspicions about the intonation of vintage sopranos, the 4M included and perhaps at the top of the list. I have included four photos
in this slide show that demonstrate just how perfect the intonation on this horn is.
Click to the end of this slide show where you will see pictures of the Conn StroboTuner I used to check the intonation of this horn and there is a detailed explanation of how it works there.
Have you paused the slide show on one of the photos of the tuner? Good. Here's how it works:
Vintage saxophones are often criticized for having poor intonation and vintage sopranos get the brunt of it, especially when you play anything above B.
That octave of the soprano - from high C to altissimo C - corresponds (mostly) to C6 on the piano.
When we play C with the octave key it sounds concert Bb6.
So let's look at the tuner.
See the dial? Note the bands numbered 1-8 to the left of center. Each band represents an octave on the piano. All twelve semitones of any given octave appear in their corresponding band.
For example, all twelve semitones of octave C6 through B6 will be found in the number 6 band of the tuner. And the actual intonation of any note will be shown as a band of lines corresponding to that numbered band. Correct intonation is shown when the band of lines stands motionless.
See the selector knob in the upper left hand corner of the control area? It has all twelve semitones on it and four index lines around it. The index lines read Bb, C, Eb, and F.
I'm tuning a Bb soprano, so the index line relevant here is the Bb. The notes in question for this post are C, C#, D and D#. You'll see the dial in each picture has those tones turned to the Bb index line.
I want to illustrate the even intonation of this 4M in an area of the horn that is notorious for being out of tune.
So you see here I'm checking the intonation of high C, C#, D, and D#. See the motionless lines in bands 6? That is what even intonation looks like on a strobe tuner.
And this is with minimal embouchure adjustments - remember it's a soprano.
This is made possible when the horn is set up correctly.
That means two things:
No leaks.
Proper venting.
(I couldn't show E and F because I need both hands to play those notes and could not also take the picture. But trust me, the lines in bands 6 were motionless for E and F too.)
Click to the end of this slide show where you will see pictures of the Conn StroboTuner I used to check the intonation of this horn and there is a detailed explanation of how it works there.
Have you paused the slide show on one of the photos of the tuner? Good. Here's how it works:
Vintage saxophones are often criticized for having poor intonation and vintage sopranos get the brunt of it, especially when you play anything above B.
That octave of the soprano - from high C to altissimo C - corresponds (mostly) to C6 on the piano.
When we play C with the octave key it sounds concert Bb6.
So let's look at the tuner.
See the dial? Note the bands numbered 1-8 to the left of center. Each band represents an octave on the piano. All twelve semitones of any given octave appear in their corresponding band.
For example, all twelve semitones of octave C6 through B6 will be found in the number 6 band of the tuner. And the actual intonation of any note will be shown as a band of lines corresponding to that numbered band. Correct intonation is shown when the band of lines stands motionless.
See the selector knob in the upper left hand corner of the control area? It has all twelve semitones on it and four index lines around it. The index lines read Bb, C, Eb, and F.
I'm tuning a Bb soprano, so the index line relevant here is the Bb. The notes in question for this post are C, C#, D and D#. You'll see the dial in each picture has those tones turned to the Bb index line.
I want to illustrate the even intonation of this 4M in an area of the horn that is notorious for being out of tune.
So you see here I'm checking the intonation of high C, C#, D, and D#. See the motionless lines in bands 6? That is what even intonation looks like on a strobe tuner.
And this is with minimal embouchure adjustments - remember it's a soprano.
This is made possible when the horn is set up correctly.
That means two things:
No leaks.
Proper venting.
(I couldn't show E and F because I need both hands to play those notes and could not also take the picture. But trust me, the lines in bands 6 were motionless for E and F too.)