Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2006-02-26 01:37
You guys have found gen-u-wine bass sax music? Wow. I've got the sax, but I use it to play music written for other instruments.
According to an article in the 1990s, in "Saxophone Journal," only about 200 bass saxes were ever made before the great extinction, until Selmer and others started manufacturing them again in the late 1990s. I wonder if that figure might be too low, since it seems quite a few old basses have turned up since that article came out.
Another alternative to paying megabucks for a new bass sax is to find an old C. G. Conn bass from the 1920s. I've got one, with keys on both sides of the bell, made in 1926. I don't know what the full retail would be these days, but I bought mine in terrible condition for $420 in about 1997, and had it restored for $1100. That included a full overhaul with all pads and several springs, and removal of a long crease through most of the lower stack toneholes--the last owner had dropped the instrument--and repair of some other dents and damage. It's got the original case and an old Buescher mouthpiece, probably the one the original owner bought new with the instrument. The repairman left dents alone where they didn't protrude into the bore.
That sax doesn't have extended range or all the side keys modern saxes have, and the keywork is not exactly ergonomic for my small hands. In order to reach the mouthpiece and all the keys at the same time, I have to play while standing up, with a support stand, with my whole right hand moved around to the front (can't reach the thumb rest and the keys at once!), but the old monster really roars. I've never compared it side-by-side with a Selmer (old or new), but I doubt that many bass saxes have got a more powerful tone than this one. It's from Conn's "big bore" period, same vintage as the "Chu Berry" tenors, although the bass has the older-style keywork.
Except for the awkward size, this bass isn't hard to play, as long as I forget everything I ever learned about clarinet embouchure. The best embouchure on bass sax (this one, anyhow) seems to be no embouchure at all, beyond what it takes not to leak air out the corners of my mouth. Tightening up at all produces "accidental altissimo."
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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