Is a 7m conn alto sax a bad sax?

Answer 1

Conn 1970's 7M Alto Sax - NOS !

SOLD, another one in the works, however.

The 7M was something of a Unicorn for the past few decades. Yeah, some sax folks had heard of 'em....or vaguely remembered such a model... but it seemed almost nobody had ever seen one. And the few who had couldn't give an accurate description of the instrument at all. But with the advent of sax forums, some of the dots got connected, Nowadays, every now and again, one of these horns pops up...still quite few and far-between.

The 7M is a model created in the '70's. As the lore goes, this was Conn's final attempt, once all production moved out of Elkhart, to ramp it up and make a pro horn, late in the original company's life. It was supposed to replace their legendary 6M Artist, which had had a stellar run but was discontinued by the early 70's.

This horn is NOS ('new old stock') ! Lacquer is 100%, body is clean and true, showing nary a ding and only a few small scratches. The body and keys are absolutely immaculate. Goodness, it even comes with its original Conn paperwork, which looks just about as new. The neck is an original 7M neck but from a different horn, thus it shows some mild lacquer wear. Pads are great, and she speaks with ease. They might have been deep into it by the 70's, but the 7M still retains that legendary wide, round Conn tone. Kinda offers the best of both worlds - it's a vintage Saxophone in brand-new condition.

If this horn never caught on, it wasn't because of the instrument. They put some serious design and construction into this horn. We would more hazard to guess that by then, nobody was paying much attention to the company any longer in regards to professional-calibre instruments. Which is too bad...because the 7M got overlooked.

Great tone, gorgeous appearance, wonderful ergos, awesome key design. Really, a class act of an alto.