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Ok, I bought this bass bone. I like it. It is not as heavy as it could be, but it still is going to kill my left hand if I spend much time with it.

What I want is a chair-based support (i.e., adjustable peg-thingy,) one that both takes the weight and disallows rotation. I'm thinking something made up of PVC tubes sliced lengthwise to make connecting "troughs," along with a peg down to an X stand on the chair, that I basically sit on, and which is the rotation-disallower. I'm used to sitting quite reasonably in one position while I play, so not being able to bob like a bassoonist is not important. But....what ideas do ya'll have? Just needs to a) easily support the weight and position; b) disallow rotation, both forward-backward and side-to-side; c) rest on the chair, not on the floor in front of the chair.

MA

MA, check out this-
http://www.ergobrass.com/trb/eng/eng_trb_te.html

Though I only have the harness now, the chair/rod support seems quite good and would probably allow for a bit more embouchure wiggling than the harness. I'm sure you can rig something like this up.

There is a rig designed to support the instrument down to the waist of the player, allowing for more movement side to side, or even standing. Unfortunately, the woman moved to New Mexico last spring and I have lost touch with her. She had some physical problems that prevented her from playing until she found this support. She, of course, loved it.

I'm familiar with the ergobone and don't think it would work for me, which is why I'm trying to design my own support system.
It is also extremely expensive....and that gets my goat. We managed to put together a very workable English horn support out of about $5 worth of parts, so I didn't see any reason to spend a lot of money on that one either.

MA

Even 2 valve bassbones are not critically heavy, if the hand supports them right under the center of gravity, and if the bell is placed so close to the slide as the slide ferrules and the players fingers will allow.

Vanity and laziness towards finding the right placement to allow vision of music and conductor make many players open the distance/the angle between bell and slide. The result is invariably that the bell will want to fall to the left thereby putting large amounts of stress on the wrist tendon seats.

Some makes have hand supports. Some don’t. For my King 7B I took a wooden ring intended for hanging curtains on a bar, cut part of it and mounted it to the bell stay by means of woven nylon string and textile tape for bicycle handles.

Klaus