Alto Conn ChuBerry (1926)

  • Posted on: 26 September 2022
  • By: Mark

Still highly sought-after among jazz musicians : the Conn New Wonder series 2 (better known as the ChuBerry). These were built from mid-1924 and were the successor to the New Wonder series 1. Difference : the ChuBerry has the fingernail Gis key : the typical feature of this sax. Otherwise they are completely identical, although the ChuBerry is much more desirable..... These are fantastic saxes, obviously hand-built and very robust. They feature rolled tone holes and the famous microtuner on the neck. The full and warm tone is great for jazz, blues and ballads. These saxes sound best with a vintage mouthpiece with large round chamber. Modern (narrower) mouthpieces often do not give the desired result.
Many copies of this model have been built and you can regularly find them as occasions on online platforms. However, most are quite damaged and worn down: a nice model is hard to find.
MROsaxophones now has a very nice matt silver example in its collection, with serial number M1797xx. Built in mid-1926, and this is 1 of the first ChuBerry alto saxophones with the first changes to the keywork. The octave key and palm keys have already had the upgrade to 6M-style keywork: the sculptured side F is still unchanged.
This example can be found as AS101 under the ´Occasions´ section, with complete description and many photos.