Conn Serial Numbers French Horn
I just bought a Conn V1 flugelhorn in used condition. I'd like to know the year of manufacture, so I looked at the Conn Selmer website. It is said horns made from year 2000 are stamped from 5000001 and over.!!??? My horn has the number 130623.I'm completely confused! Didn't find any useful info on the net. May 03, 2011 Conn/Selmer responded to a phone call I made stating in most definite terms that the horn I had, the Nxxxx serial number 'Shooting Stars' CONN USA was indeed built at the Art Best Factory in Nogales, AZ in 1970. I guess I choose to believe Conn. View the manufacturing date ranges on serial numbers for many of our legendary brands.
Conn Serial Numbers Horn Diagram
Hi Morris, Here is a fragment of the serial number table/list:
500001 1955
571850 1956
652002 1957
718626 1958
779657 1959
This should be read as: Instruments with serials between 571850 (included) and 652002 (not included) were produced in 1956. Instruments made in 1957 have a serial between 652002 and 718626.
In other words, 571850 was the first serial number issued in 1956. The last serial number issued in 1956 would have been 652001. Serial 652002 is the first issued in 1957.
So you 649xxx was indeed made in 1956.
Caveat: This is basically unknowable unless I/we can find someone with first hand knowledge, but this list tells us when the serial number was issued. It is possible that Conn produced a batch of instruments and then sent the lot to the 'serial number guy' (or whatever) to issue and stamp serials. This could be why sequential serial numbers are usually the same model. In this situation a model could have been made on December 31, 1956 but have a serial dating 1957 if it was serial'ed on 2 January 1957. Or, perhaps a block of serial numbers was reserved for a particular model and as they came off the line one serial number in that block was scratched off the list and applied to the instrument.
Regards, Christine
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