Vintage Couesnon Monopole Conservatories B-flat Flugelhorn, Ser#14954 (~1950)

Description

Vintage Couesnon Monopole Conservatores B-flat Flugelhorn, Ser#14954 (~1950)
Couesnon (founded 1882) Monopole Flugelhorn - circa 1950
Serial No. 14954
http://www.brasshistory.net/Couesnon%20Dating%20List.pdf
Refurbished by Tom Green (greensbuffing.com): dents removed, bright silver plate, valves replated and honed by Mark Metzler (http://metzlerbrassrepair.com).
Get your hands on some vintage hardware…buy this Couesnon Monopole Flugelhorn!
Couesnon flugelhorns are touted as the standard bearer among flugels. This horn turned out to be a superb player! This is the oldest one I can presently find available for sale: It is 70 years old!!!!
The previous owner was a collector and told me that the horn needed new valves. When I first got it, the intonation was so bad that the C major scale was barely recognizable! I knew it would need a valve replate, but mixed reviews have been tossed around for years regarding the intonation on Couesnon flugelhorns, so I knew it was a gamble to put $$ into the finish. However, now that all of the work has been done, this horn plays extremely well in tune and is an incredible find! It also maintains that legendary, deep, rich Couesnon flugel sound, perfectly suitable for many settings, including the jazz soloist to commercial to classical church settings.
The horn did not come with a 3rd trigger, so I had Tom install one from Adams Brass left over from one of my previously-planned projects. All valves and slides work like new. I did use a borescope to check out the inside of the instrument, and it has no visible red rot. Micro dings and faint ripples in the final finish may be evident in certain light, but you should have seen it before I sent it to Tom! He really did a fantastic job! I have applied a nanotechnology sealant to protect the finish against oxidation. A recording can be found on TrumpetHerald.