Cool thanks for your help!

This is an old thread, but to correct the information given, the Liberty (NY) Conns were patterned after the Wonder Improved models, not the New Wonder Series I horns. They have no front F key, no pearl key touches like the Wonder horns.

Well, the New Wonder Series I and the Wonder Improved are basically the same horn. The Wonder horns were the first horns that Conn produced. The Wonder Improved evolved into the New Wonder Series I. There were some improvements to the keywork and as you said, the pearl key touches were added to the New Wonder Series I. Many of the stencil horns lacked some of the features found on the name brand horns. Most of the Conn stencils did not have rolled tone holes, or a micro tuner neck. Some of the earlier horns did not have the pearl key touches. The first New Wonder series I horns to have the rolled tone holes were the altos. The C Melody Tenor and Baritone didn't have them until 1922. The alto apparently had them as early as 1919? I've seen early New Wonder series I horns (serial numbers 40,000-54,000) that did not have rolled tone holes. Some of the stencils did have the pearl key touches while others did not.

The New Wonder, while sharing the "Wonder" portion of the model name, was quite an improvement over the Wonder "Improved" model, and thus easily distinguishable from it's earlier brethren. The cosmetic, construction and mechanical differences are well known to Conn collectors as listed, and available from a variety of web sources for comparison complete with photographed examples for the uninitiated. Like the majority of stencils produced during the New Wonder series I production run, the Liberty is based on the older Wonder, not the then state of the art New Wonder I, just as many later Conn stencils were based on the New Wonder once the "Artist" series came out. The WORSTER model is in fact the first model sax produced by Conn, which predates the Wonder by quite a few years. This was of course Gus Buescher's first foray into sax design, while still employed by Conn.