Couesnon Bb Trumpet
Paris
c.1970

Here is a Bb trumpet made by Couesnon around 1970. This played very well and was in good original condition with great valves so I decided to experiment a little with customizing it. It had a number of dents in the bell and some bad solder work but overall they were minor problems.

Here is the finished trumpet followed by some before and construction shots.

The 83,000 serial number probably dates this to around 1970 and it looks like by this time there was little talent left for stamping the bell. I think a child could have gotten this straighter.

I got rid of the uncomfortable third slide ring and reversed the first slide pipe to allow a ring there as well. The best way that I found to make the rings was to buy a large brass finger tube made for a guitar slide then cut slices off as needed.

Here is the tuning slide with two layers of brass sheet to get a wave look.

Another matching sheet added to the back and it's ready for the top plate.

The heavy bottom caps were made from some old brass lamp parts soldered to the original caps.

This was the hardest part of the whole project; getting a perfect fit for two sheets of brass on the top. The bottom sheet has one bad hole but it doesn't show.

I recently picked up an old Pilczuk Accusonic leadpipe and attached it beside the original one to see if I wanted to change it. It plays with a more centered pitch so I like it but not sure about how the copper pipe goes with the rest of the horn.

After playing this for a year I decided to sell it. The buyer had it silver plated and it now looks even better.