Contra woodwinds

[SplatterTone]

A wind blown synthesizer and a Pig Nose portable amp.

[iiipopes]

A guy in my community band plays a BBb bass sax, next in line in pitch below the usual Eb bari sax. 1920's Conn. In perfect shape in satin silver. Very musical. No hardness, raspiness or "screen door slapping" sounds at all.

I, for one, having been blessed in a high school band that had the full complement of mid to lower woodwinds, will, and do stand up in support of their supporting role to the tuba in maintaining and expanding the depth and breadth of the concert band, by whatever "designer" or "proper" name it be known: symphonic, mixed winds, etc.

Still being a tubist, however, I also consider their role as to 1) keep the rest of the woodwinds from sounding so screetchy, and 2) help us tubas sound better, as the tuba is still the proper foundation to a concert band, and moreover, in my not-so-humble opinion, even though they are necessary in orchestra, the string bass has no part except as a fill in for insufficient tubas.

[Donn]

and moreover, in my not-so-humble opinion, even though they are necessary in orchestra, the string bass has no part except as a fill in for insufficient tubas.

In my brief career with a community concert band, I played among other things string bass for a brief while. The director thought that would be a good thing, as it would augment the tubas which, he said in sort of a conspiratorial tone, sound kind of "farty".

[Bandmaster]

I played clarinet in junior high and my sophomore year in high school before I learned how to play tuba. So when I was in college there was one semester I was talked into playing contrabass clarinet in one of the lower ensembles. It was a lot of fun until the wind ensemble I was playing tuba for played a split concert with this other ensemble. We played Russian Christmas Music, with me on all those low sustained notes on contrabass clarinet, to close the first portion of the concert.

We had only a 15 intermission then I had to play the tuba. I had never tried play tuba right after the CB Clarinet before, that was my big mistake. Well, I picked up my tuba back stage and my lower lip was so numb from those low notes at the end of RCM that I couldn't even get a sound out of the tuba. Needless to say I got a little worried, then I started to freak out a little as it didn't get better very quickly.

The conductor of the wind ensemble kept looking back at the tuba section wondering why there were so many cracked note coming out of our section during the first couple of selections. I was just hiding behind my bell as much as I could, it was very embarassing.

[bassax]

A very nice topic! Low woodwinds are my prime instruments. I play baritone sax, bass sax, bass clarinet and contraalto clarinet. I've also played bassoon and contrabass clarinet.

I've tried the EEb tubax, the redesigned contrabass sax. It was very easy to play but I wasn't really impressed by the tone. It sounds more like a contra bassoon or sarrusophone than like a sax. I really do prefer the old contrabass sax design. The tubax designer Benedikt Eppelsheim just recently designed a BBBb (!) tubax, the lowest sax ever and a new EEb contrabass sax with extended range to low A. Very interesting!

I've been experimenting playing my bass sax with a tuba mouthpiece. It fits nicely inside the sax neck. It works pretty good to use regular sax fingerings and it plays close enough in pitch. I would recommend to stay with fingerings in the lower register and use overtones to play higher tones.

And what do they cost? A baritone sax would cost you $1500 to $10000. A bass sax sets you back $4000-$16000. I think the tubax is around $17000-$20000 and the contrabass sax $30000-$45000.

[bassax]

If you're in the U.S I'd recommend you to look for old Buescher, Conn, Martin and King saxes. Also look for stencil models of the same brands like Pan American, Carl Fisher and Lyon & Healy. If you're lucky you might find one cheap. If you want a more modern and affordable baritone I would look for Jupiters and Yanagisawas from the 80's.

Watch out for Bueschers and Conns made later than the 60's, those are student model saxes and not at all the same quality as the old ones. I would also avoid modern saxes from Taiwan and China as well as those from Eastern Europe made in the 60's to 80's.

Here's a great sax forum:
http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin/

[bassax]

"Neither Yanagisawa nor Jupiter are anywhere close to being 'the best', but the Yanagisawa-made bari's are tons better than any Jupiters."

It might be true for the 80's models. But the new Yanagisawa pro saxes, from the middle of the 90's to now are definitely in the top league with Selmer, Keilwerth and Yamaha's pro models.

Today's Vito baritone saxes are said to be the same as the Yanagisawa student line baritones.

[circusboy]

I prefer the contrabassoon in this family. More character and warmth.

American composer Donald Erb has written some great stuff for this instrument, including a concerto and "Five Red Hot Duets for Contrabassoon," which I wouldn't mind hearing on duelling BATs one day.

Contrabassoonist Susan Nigro has a few CDs out on the Crystal label, too. Worth a listen.

I think these instruments start at over $10K.