To all interested in these findings.... While I was working in Boston at Rayburn Music, I experimented heavily with and personally played the Conn 11d. What I found, similar to what Bob Osmun has said, is that the components are very good but the build had some problems. I expect they still have some of the problems that I encountered when I was customizing these horns.
What I found was that the levers were uncomfortable for most players. I looked into options with Conn but that ended quickly, so I quickly looked at the specs and found it wasn't too hard to transplant a 667 lever set directly to the Conn (10 or 11D). I find that with these horns the lacquer is too thick and restricting and we sold all or our modified horns without lacquer. A few exceptions were to those who had a metal allergy. I found metal shavings in the valve cans. Poor if not incomplete soldering joints. Dents in the f branch from lapping the 2nd valve slides. 1st slide B horn when pulled out completely would be stopped by the f branch. I can go on... What I found that worked best for projection and response is to drop the braces between the bell tail and lead pipe and solid solder it directly to the bell tail. I highly recommend a Ron Pinc Lead pipe. This horn can play to a very high level given some attention. But one reason for my departure from this project was due to the fact that I could not make further improvements without changing the valves completely. So here I am in Germany. The 10d is very good as well but keep this in mind.... Conn uses the same bell ring for their 10 and 11D horns. The 10D is a significantly smaller flare and this requires much less cutting of the inside of the ring. When you get a chance, run your hands around the top of the ring of the 10D, then the 11D. You can feel and see the extra mass on the 10D. This prevents the 10D from responding as well as it could and dampens the carrying power of that model significantly. No ring or a smaller outer diameter is needed. Good luck and if you have any other questions, let me know. Sincerely, Scott H. Bacon Sales, Marketing, and Service Verkauf, Marketing, und Service Specialist in French Horn Spezialist für Waldhorn Musikhaus Dürk Steuerstraße 16a 55411 Bingen - Dromersheim Germany Telephone: 49 ((0)6725) 1507 Fax: 49 ((0)6725) 6307 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: www.DuerkHorns.de. _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
