The Conn DJH Modified
Here's some information from an eBay ad concerning one of these horns (corrections are in brackets):
The serial number, and the 'naked lady' hand engraving at first made me think that this instrument was built in the early 1920's, but the 'DJH' engraving on the bell was something that Daniel Henkin was fond of doing during his ownership of Conn (1980-1985). It was during this period that Conn was reestablished back in Elkhart, Indiana, Doc Severenson was hired as Vice President of product development and the quality of Conn's earlier years was once again seen in the craftsmanship of its instruments.
Conn's public relations department could only [tell me that] the 108M model number is unknown and has no record. This would imply that there were very few of these instruments made and none mass produced.
Mr Henkin was said to be fond of producing small numbers of limited pro line instruments. The serial number and 'DJH Modified' engraving are consistent with the 1980-1985 period in which Mr Henkin was sole owner of Conn Ltd. -- and Mr Henkin was fond of putting his name on his custom instruments.
It is interesting to note that this would have been one of the last Conn Ltd. instruments produced. In 1985 Conn was sold to a Swedish conglomerate and shortly thereafter was incorporated into United Musical In[struments] (UMI).
- Item Characteristics:
- Standard pitch (A=440)
- Altissimo F# key
- Drawn and rolled tone holes.
- Real mother-of-pearl finger buttons on all stack keys, side F#, high F#, and G# spatula.
- Hand engraved bell. Includes engraving of 'C.G.CONN LTD' and 'Naked Lady'
- Adjustable thumb rest.
- Body has extremely heavy wall construction. The bell and bow are quite thick and give the instrument a massive feel.
This instrument has all the feel, and response of a very high quality, pro line sax. If you are looking for a true vintage and RARE 'Naked Lady', this is it."
These horns are nothing more than H-Couf Superba models with different engraving and some different sheet metal -- and the H-Coufs are, in turn, Keilwerth Toneking/New King (series IV) stencils.
There are some folks that do insist that Daniel Henkin did order custom bows and/or keywork, but there's not a large enough sampling to prove or disprove this.
The rolled tone hole models correspond, roughly, to the Superba I, and non-rolled-tone-hole models to the Superba II.
I do not have any pics of DJH baritones, nor do I know their model number. I've heard that the straight soprano is a 106M.