Saturday, July 21, 2018

Conn 440N alto clarinet


Here's a really neat old alto clarinet by Conn.  This 440N dates to the 1930's and features a double register mechanism that is manually operated (two different thumb keys).  It takes some getting used to figuring out when to switch from one to the other but the two vent system makes huge difference in the tone and clarity of the clarion register.  This is the first alto I've played with the double vent and I love it.  This clarinet also had a crack running from the upper end of the top joint about 6 inches down.  These days one doesn't have resort to pins or bands to fix cracks as folks did in the past.  In this case very thin CA glue and grenadilla dust as filler sealed things up perfectly.  After finishing work was done the crack was almost invisible unless you looked close!
Also to note, Conn clarinets don't always have the best rep, but I've found that most of their clarinets pre WWII are pretty darn decent. 

No comments:

Post a Comment