Pan-American C-Melody Sax

Made in Elkhart, Indiana by the Grandaddy of American Brass...Conn.

Also engraved:

PATD. SEPT. 14, 1915
1153489
C
P28822
L

The '1153489' is the patent number. The 'C' indicates C-Melody. 'P28822' is the serial number. 'L' indicates Low Pitch (A=440)

Silver-plated with 'Gold Wash' bell
Blue Steel Needle Springs
Mother of Pearl fingertouches and rollers

When I look up the serial number now, I come up with 1926. When I looked it up before I came up with 1927. Lets just call it 80 years old. You can check yourself at the Conn Loyalist.

Sorry, this C-Mel is gone.

All new pads, corks and felts.
Want to see what the old, original, white leather pads looked like? Check them out here.
The last picture below shows the sax after it is polished...waiting for pads, felts, corks and re-assembly.

I spent hours and hours polishing the silver plate. There are still some blemishes here and there. You might call it 95%??? There is brass showing through on some of the keyguards, the thumbhook, the neckstrap ring, the lyre screw and the neck screw...still and all, not very noticeable. (The neck screw has no silver on it. It's the right size and shape, but the total absence of silver makes me wonder if it is original.) The silverplate is still great on the keytouches without pearls, like the high palm keys, etc. The body is a matte or sand-blasted silver-plate finish while the engraving and the keys are shiny silver-plate.

No dents. Just a few very light ripples in the bow.

This sax has a great sound. The low end is richer than an alto. These saxes are great for folks coming back to the sax after many years absence. They also work well for guitar-players, piano-players and the like. If you just want to stand alongside a piano-player, look over his/her shoulder and play in unison using the same music...this is the way to go...this is what these C-Mel's were designed to do. With an alto or tenor sax, you'd either have to transpose on the fly, or else you'd have to buy seperate sheet music scored for an Eb or Bb instrument. Or play by ear.