My 16M plays like a Conn, that's what I know. So that might be the distinction between a 16M and a late Pan Am - the body tube moving from a New Wonder basis to a 10M basis. Although the scuttlebutt is that the 16M tube is actually same as the 10M tube.
This is THE SERIAL NUMBER RANGE and Conn Model Gerry Mulligan played his earliest and most important Jazz Recordings. Offered for sale is my prized 1926 Conn New Wonder Series II (two) Baritone Sax Serial 189, XXX. I suspect not I suspect that Conn simply took what they had been building as "Pan Am" and put the shooting star engraving on it and called it the "16M Director". 1926 Conn New Wonder Series II Gerry Mulligan Model Bari Sax.
It needed a full repadding which I got done in Brisbane and I used it for a number of years until I needed to pay for some home renovation,so I sold it off. I'm not sure if there were ever any Pan Ams based on the 10M. My first tenor saxophone was a 1957 Selmer Paris Mark VI which I bought from my local music shop. The keywork of the 16M is essentially the same as that of the New Wonder (with a few minor differences), and so any Pan Am based on a New Wonder would have nearly identical keywork. 2019 Professional Rose Gold Plated Alto Sax Saxophone Newest Saxofon With Case. OP, have you actually seen this instrument? There are a lot of open questions so I hope you're not planning to pay a premium price till some are answered.ĪndyB has one that is definitely marked "Pan American" - we'd have to see pix of that one to ID positively. The left hand table also looks too primitive for a New Wonder but would be appropriate, I think, for a Pan Am. OP's might very well be a Pan American, which would also explain the lack of rolled tone holes on a horn bearing the patent info for the rolled tone hole patent. OK, now we've got two horns competing for attention. All of that can be fixed, but it needs to be reflected in the price. Unless you can confirm with actual evidence, you should assume it'll be closer to the first one than the second. So its current condition could be anywhere from "the mechanics are heavily worn, gummed up with old oil, and lots of rust" to "all the keywork was swaged to tighten up all joints, all pads corks and felts have just been replaced and a complete setup was done, so it's ready to play right now and for the next 20-40 years". Unless it's recently undergone a complete mechanical overhaul (as attested by receipts, not just by someone saying so) there could be considerable mechanical wear and slop. Keep in mind, too, that this sax is about 100 years old. Since the specs of Pan Am and Conn necks are nearly identical (or maybe completely identical) it won't matter for playing, but without the Conn brace it's very flexy feeling and more fragile. The neck looks like a Pan American neck, not a Conn neck, as Conns have the wire brace underneath and Pan Ams just have the little strip. Conn New Wonder, early 1920s, which someone has fitted with a front F key.