IW bass sax

[Chuck(G)]

You know, we could take all that energy focused on big saxes and redirect it to world peace, eradicating kudzu or some other worthy cause.

It seems to me that making more saxophones just encourages the playing of the damned things.

[Donn]

You know, we could take all that energy focused on big saxes and redirect it to world peace, eradicating kudzu or some other worthy cause.

It seems to me that making more saxophones just encourages the playing of the damned things.

There are nowhere near enough big saxophones - except in Brazil, apparently. Some guy down there makes them himself, extended range basses if I remember right, and sells them to members of a religious sect.

[Donn]

My name is Donn, and I play the saxophone.

Self-admission is the first step to recovery.

I'm going to quit, after the next concert. Well, couple of concerts. Or probably not. At least I'm playing tuba in one band, where for a few years it was down to zero.

Anyway, on the matter of that bass saxophone auction, let me just observe that saxophones and other woodwinds are very sensitive to any leakage around the holes, and there are a lot of holes. The bigger the saxophone, the larger the holes, and there's a sort of exponential issue with respect to the strength of the various keys and rods, vs size and weight. Strength is roughly square of length, where weight is the cube, so the bass sax is fighting the laws of nature, even if it was the first size Sax made.

My point is that a new bass saxophone is guaranteed to be shiny, and may even play well on day one, but could be a nuisance to keep in good playing condition. So one might be cautious about a fly-by-night Chinese brand for sale in an on-line auction. There must be some middle ground between that, and Selmer's [probably non-]offering.

[Chuck(G)]

Anyway, on the matter of that bass saxophone auction, let me just observe that saxophones and other woodwinds are very sensitive to any leakage around the holes, and there are a lot of holes. The bigger the saxophone, the larger the holes, and there's a sort of exponential issue with respect to the strength of the various keys and rods, vs size and weight. Strength is roughly square of length, where weight is the cube, so the bass sax is fighting the laws of nature, even if it was the first size Sax made.

You could fix that problem simply by filling in all of the hollow bits with reinforced concrete...