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Recently, I had a chance to do an overhaul on a Conn 28M. Conn is such an interesting company to me, particularly in how they designed their saxophones. Each new model would always take traits from those that came before, while simultaneously making huge additions. In other words: borrowing what worked, tweaking what could have been better, and always introducing something new and massive. This is in essence nothing out of the ordinary for saxophones of this era, but it always seemed like Conn pushed the envelope into further and further extremes with the kinds of mechanics they would develop,...

Why am I extra excited about this particular trumpet? Because it’s the same model I’ve played every day for the last 7 years! The biggest difference between this one and my own is that it has a lighter bell than mine, and mine has thousands of hours of play time! I thought it would be fun to share a few photos of these twins together for a few reasons, one being that they are just beautiful in that satin gold lacquer!   In these photos, mine is on the left while the one on the right is up for sale....

Check out this super fun horn that wandered in! This is probably the fourth bass trumpet to cross my bench since I started working here at the igloo, and also one of the nicer ones! It had obviously been sitting for a while and had been put away pretty dirty, but unfortunately that tends to be the case with horns like this that don’t get used as much. Everything was stuck except the pistons, but now all slides and caps are free, clean, and moving properly. It’s a very attractive instrument but has had some work done in its past....

I don't have a strong background in esoteric instruments, which is part of what makes working with Quinn the Eskimo so interesting for me. Every now and again, we receive an item in at the shop that just completely stumps me. (HEY! I'm looking at YOU, soprano trombone!) So I dug in and did a little 007-type investigating, and here is what I learned. Hopefully this short little write up will be interesting to musical experts and novices alike. Pitched at the same range as the Bb trumpet, one octave above the tenor trombone, the soprano trombone/mini trombone/slide trumpet has...

Hey, Brass Fans! We’ve had lots and lots of cool horns in the shop lately, but here’s one you won’t see every day, and it’s in really nice shape. This horn has been played, but it has also been taken care of - obviously its previous owner loved it! It shows some signs of repair, such as moisture under the lacquer on the handslide crook, but it still plays very well. Its smaller bore size makes it very good for higher register lead work, and it is solid enough to gig for years to come. One nice thing about a...