I got to play on a Bass sax today!

[rs2sensen]

My band director brought in his bass sax and I got to jam on it for a while. He found it sitting in another school a few years back, and bought it for $250. Very few dents, immaculate condition Conn.

It was...different. I'm used to alto playing, but I've played the low guys too, and my mouth had to be incredibly loose to get the low pitches out. I'm used to the vintage keywork, so it wasn't too bad, but it was still...different, in that respect. If I were to play it on a regular basis, I would definitely require a harness neck strap instead of my regular one, which I thought might snap if I played on it much longer.

In the end, it was just a very cool experience 🙂

 

[Bobby G]

I hope your back is ok! I'd love to play one of the bigger ones (being primarily an alto player), even a baritone would be nice as it's also an Eb horn, but something taller than me would be great.

Has anyone played one of those hyper-mega-contrabass tubax things? They sound fantastic!

Cheers, Bob

 

[Pjonah]

Bobby G wrote:
Has anyone played one of those hyper-mega-contrabass tubax things? They sound fantastic!

Cheers, Bob

Hi Bob,

I recently bought Jay C Eastons cd and he plays an amazing aray of "saxophones", beyond bass, in my opinion, it all gets a bit silly. The sound they produce is, while impressive, pretty useless in popular music.

The instruments start to become nothing more than a curiosity, I find it hard to listen to more than about 3 or 4 of the 20 or so tracks on the cd before I get bored.

Sopranino to Bass is really the range I am most comfortable with as I guess most people are really, even that is probably stretching it a bit.

I love my baritone its always a treat to get the beast out and give it a blast, but here is a funny thing, when I first started playing it, I had to fit rubber pads to the tooth plate because it made the tip of my nose tickle! God only knows what it would be like playing a sub contra bass!

See him here:

http://www.jayeaston.com/

Hey ho

Simon

 

[Jules]

This should speak for itself... very low down and rumbly...

 

[Dylan]

OK Jules

What the heck is that? And who is playing who?

D

 

[Jules]

That, faintly cartoony looking (and sounding) monster is an Eppelshiem Sub Contra Bass sax.... very odd- the low fartiness of it almost made it sound like some sort of 1970s moog synth rather than a sax...

 

[Pjonah]

Jeeks Nachoman that is one hell of a beast, makes my Baritone look puny.

Interesting array of mediaeval instruments behind you too.

If you own that little lot I will be very jealous.

The farty sound produced by these monsters is really pretty pointless in my view, some comedy value I guess but extremely limited in what you can do with it. Bit of a bugger dragging that along to a gig!

Simon

 

[Bobby G]

I reckon that's what Chicory Tip used on 'Son of my Father'. What a beast.

I have to agree with the usefulness of anything lower than a bass sax in popular music (I'm a purist, me, I sneer at 5- and 6-string bass guitars), but I have a CD of unpopular music that came with a magazine which hass much tubax to soprillo noodling and some of it is lovely.

Cheers, Bob

 

[Jules]

one of my horn section buddies used to occassionally bring a bass sax along for gigs. a lovely sound but absolutely useless when mixed in with 3 other horns, drums, bass, guitar and hammnod organ. To have got the thing loud and powerful enough to be viable would have required the sort of lungs that used to be used to explode hot water bottles in sideshows. He did, however, do a bit of his own recording with it and it had a lovely tone- just not really a 'live' instrument (plus it was obviously a right B****** to carry around).
The photo's not any of my personal kit- it was at Eppelshiem's stall at a trade fair.