Description

The Connstellation 38B is nickel plated with brass trim and has a large 5 1/8′ bell. It has a #1 bore (0.438′), and was produced from 1956 to at least 1979. This particular horn was made Circa 1965, right in the sweet spot of  Connstellation 38B Manufactuuring.

There are several variants of Connstellation 38B. The 1956 and 1957 versions used a style of valve cap that was specific to those years. It is a felt-less top valve cap. From 1958 (as pictured here) Conn switched all trumpets and cornets to a style of valve cap with the felt on the top valve caps itself. These valve caps are either nickel-silver plated or lacquered brass. I suspect that from late 1959 (serial numbers 800,000 and above?) the rule was to equip nickel plated, nickel silver and silver plated instruments with lacquered brass valve caps, and lacquered brass and coprion instruments with the nickel-silver valve caps. As you can see the instrument pictured here has nickel silver valve caps; the serial is in the 7xx,xxx’s. 

The issue of whether Connstellations have a Coprion bell has been discussed here in the past and different theories exist. In August/September 2009 I received information and then, by chance, strong evidence that has caused me to change my views on this again. 

A former Conn employee said, and this appears to be confirmed by the 1960’s Conn Product Manual and other reports, that Electro-D is a similar process to Coprion using non-copper metals. The former Conn employee said that an Electro-D bell was a brass bell, electrolytically plated with copper, and then electrolytically plated with nickel. These descriptions seem to match with each other and the evidence. This causes the Connstellation serial numbers to come in as follows (my educated guess):

• Serials (5xx,xxx – ) 6xx,xxx: ‘Electro-D’ bell (see above), Brass leadpipe (multi-piece). ‘Early Model’ Connstellation.
• Serials 7xx,xxx – Rxx,xxx: ‘Electro-D’ bell (see above), Coprion leadpipe (seamless). ‘Late Model’ Connstellation.
• Serials GA3xx,xxx and higher: Brass bell, brass leadpipe (who knows). ‘Late Model’ Connstellation. 

All Connstellations up to and including those produced in 1969 have engraved on the bell ‘C.G.Conn LTD, Connstellation, Elkhart, USA’. I haven’t seen pictures of any Connstellations with serial numbers dating from 1970 or 1971 so I don’t know what happened then. Connstellations built in 1972 had ‘C.G.Conn LTD, Connstellation, Abilene, Texas, USA’ engraved on the bell. The ‘Abilene’ disappeared quickly though and was replaced by simply ‘C.G.Conn LTD, Connstellation, USA’. Draw your own conclusion from the quick removal of the word ‘Abilene’. 

The felt on all Connstellations, as all other Conns, is red. However, in the late 1970’s Conn switched to Brown/beige. I am told by someone who owns a 1979 Connstellation that the felt on his instrument is brown/beige, and not red.

Horn Condition….

Cosmetics.

This horn is in very good condition. I can’t find any dents. There may be 1 or 2 very small dents I missed. Finish is in good condition overall. Finish has small scratches and small pitting.  Please see pictures, they tell the story.

Mechanically

this horn is in very good condition. Valve action is also outstanding. All slides work as they should. Horn plays and sounds great. Horn has been chemical cleaned, gone over and is ready to go. New valve springs, felts, spit valve corks and springs. Then play tested.

Case exterior is in fair condition. The latch springs are both broken but both latches latch. Case interior is in very good condition. Please see photos for condition of horn and case. No mouthpiece