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Two legendary horns compared!

12K views 89 replies 45 participants last post by  wagtenor 
#1 ·
Decided to record my two vintage tenors today. We have the 1935 silver plate Conn Transitional/10m and the 1954 Selmer SBA! I recorded in logic and added some reverb, no eq. Tell me what you think! My main go to horn is the selmer. Why?...well i guess its because the tone feels more robust somewhat. I love both though but the Conn is for sale. My setup is a RS Berkeley Chris Potter mouthpiece and a Rico orange box 3.5.

The Conn!



The Selmer!

 
#3 ·
Tough call, they both sound great. ...You mentioned you find the SBA more robust, listening to these recordings I find the Conn to have the edge, it seems more complex, more open.

If you do another shoot out try going for a blind test. It's amazing how the mind is influenced by the power of suggestion...I love my SBA...so my first thought is SBA...

The fact is they both sound great, we all have different senses of perception, the details we're talking about are pretty small.

Nice playing!
 
#4 ·
Tough call, they both sound great. ...You mentioned you find the SBA more robust, listening to these recordings I find the Conn to have the edge, it seems more complex, more open.

If you do another shoot out try going for a blind test. It's amazing how the mind is influenced by the power of suggestion...I love my SBA...so my first thought is SBA...

The fact is they both sound great, we all have different senses of perception, the details we're talking about are pretty small.

Nice playing!
Pretty hard to do a blind test when the player is the one holding the horn and a Conn and a Selmer feel nothing alike in the hands.
 
#5 ·
Nice playing! Haven't got the opportunity to play many saxes, so this kind of side-by-side thing is interesting. I'd choose the Conn! Eyes closed, I can almost taste the metal. Selmer in comparison maybe too smooth/velvety. I can understand how someone would prefer that kind of sound, however.
 
#10 ·
The Conn sounded fuller and more complex as well as louder to my ears.
 
#21 ·
I play a 43xxx SBA Tenor...it took many repeat listening for me to decide on the Conn...
 
#20 ·
Me and other nerds on this forum like to compare horns, listen for differences and discuss what we hear with others. This is my way contributing to the community. Obviously you does not seem to enjoy these exercises?
 
#28 ·
As a non-english speaker who has already trouble knowing the meaning of typical words like "dark", "spread" etc, these attempts at describing the small differences are quite fun to read, and educational. Adjectives sighted so far:

Selmer: great, robust, smooth, velvety, pleasing color, sophisticated
Conn: great, focused, complex, open, sound tastes like metal (that's me lol ), deep, earthy, louder, responsive, full, has "ring"
 
#29 ·
If the recordings were chopped into individual phrases and randomly mixed together, I wouldn't be able to tell you which horn was playing which phrase. For me, the choice would be whether one or the other is easier to get the sound I want, including getting a larger spectrum of voices. What other people hear is secondary (maybe third after ergonomics).

That being said, no horn that I've ever played sounds as good as these and I'm sure that neither of these would sound as good in my hands. So it's like watching a race between a Ferrari and a Bugatti. Interesting, fun, but not much practical application to my life. I should be practicing.

Mark
 
#30 ·
'Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

Laurie Anderson, Steve Martin, Frank Zappa, Martin Mull, Elvis Costello, Thelonius Monk, Clara Schumann, Miles Davis, George Carlin and several other people have been credited with concocting this extraordinarily popular and enigmatic simile. There is another common version of the quote: "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture."'

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08/writing-about-music/

Communication with words, even in a common language, is an extraordinary thing. Many is the time I have been in a room full of people who really wanted to get ideas across to one another, had similar education and histories, and just could not manage to say anything without being misunderstood. It is not surprising to me that musical sounds are hard to talk about. I am often surprised that we can get anything clearly understood, even when both sides want to be cooperative and helpful. Ambiguity and confusion seem to be built into words, and I think that is one reason why people like dancing and painting and music --- no words are required for the expression to be complete.
 
#34 ·
Roger - so is the Conn off the market? :). It sounds insanely good!

Funny how somebody will read a thread they're not interested in and then derail the entire thread just to make sure everbody knows they're not interested. With so many threads on this forum, why focus on the one you DON'T like? I'll never understand some people....
 
#37 ·
Great sound on both horns. I listened through the clips several times before deciding that it was really too close to call for me. Yes, there are small variances, but none that make one sound more appealing than the other.

I have to wonder if any subtle differences between the two horns might flip with a different mouthpiece and reed combination.
 
#40 ·
I'm going to run against the tide. It's the SBA for me. I love that velvety smooth tone. No accounting for taste eh? In high school band I sat second chair alto with my Kohlert to a guy with a Conn 6M in first chair. I never beat him in 2 years of intermediate school and 4 years of high school. I still hate him. But it was the Conn see. Not the talent. :eek:)
 
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