ive always wanted to bust out on a contrabass sax. The bell is big evough for me to sit in lol. (but i never would ) If i had an extra $50,000 or however much they are, id totally get one

Actually it's sOprillo, and no i've never played one. Not sure why they exist actually, they aren't pretty instruments at all. I would actually rather listen to a picollo.

sry about that, i wasnt sure if it was a or o

I dunno Dew, I heard a guy doin some pretty sweet stuff on his soprillo

You don't have to apologize to me.

LOL!

and you would actualy want to listen to a picollo?

i think the sOprillo exists because people buy it... same reason C tenors exist. if you play a C tenor in an ensamble your nuts (unless there are some really high quality ones out there that i hav'nt heard...). you won't find sopirllos in many ensambles either... save sax ensemble.

Guido, I guess you haven't really looked at many pro sax quartets. SOME do have soprillos. I believe the big one in the UK (the sax ensemble, not quartet) has at least one if not two soprillo players. Don't discount it for what it's worth

i'm saying that concert bands are'nt going to have one. or a jazz big band. sax quartets and that will have that kinda stuff cause they can't get that kinda sound out of the flutes or clarinets like in the other mediums.

No. That was kind of the point.

ENSEMBLE

fixed. thank you.

4 words and growing.

I have had the pleasure of both, and I must say they are indeed a treat, although they are quite difficult. The soprillo is difficult to control, and the contra requires tricky airflow manipulation, but both are enjoyable nonetheless. If you haven't tried a contra, I recommend it. Nothing matches the experience.

Ive played a bass, pretty cool. The thing was like 80 years old. This is probably gonna cause some disagreement but I find the extreme saxophones at either end of the pitch spectrum rather "unsaxophonic" timbrally. They sound like something else, like Dewey said in the case of the soprillo, a piccolo.

I used to have for a brief time, a beautiful sopranino but the use for it was minimal and i was very broke so we parted ways.

This site has some audio clips featuring soprillo. It's just not very musical imo. Hell it kind of scared me when the soprillo first came in during the ensemble piece. It sounds like me whistling to call my dog or something.

Soprillo

Actually, to clear up a few things, Guido, the reason C Melodies were invented wasn't because 'People would buy them", it's because, if my knowledge serves me correctly, they were to be used in parlors and the like so that they could read off of piano music. Also, contrabass isn't the lowest sax. It's the Bb Subcontrabass built by Benedikt Eppelsheim.

http://www.eppelsheim.com/tubax_bb.php?lang=en

Yes, that's right, it's actave below the bass saxophone... "Why?" you may ask? BECAUSE HE CAN!

Also, Dewey, your comment about extreme saxes not sounding saxlike, listen to the contrabass on the first audio clip here, I think it just sounds like a megabari.

http://www.eppelsheim.com/tubax.php?lang=en

Wrong person dude. I said the soprillo wasn't very musical, did you listen to those clips?

My bad, meant for that to be to TorontoTenor. Sincerest apoligies Dewmeister.

Edward Branham has a contrabass sax for sale in Georgia, if anyone is interested. $23000-ish. If you're interested, send an email (norweigy@hotmail.com), and I'll get you in contact with him.

I play the bass at school sometimes. Only for a couple slower tempoed songs. I also contacted someone about ordering a Sopillo Sax once from Germany and he said it would run about 900 bucks and that was with reeds and without customs charges.