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Taiwanese produced bass - why not?

19K views 66 replies 32 participants last post by  milandro 
#1 ·
Hello everyone!

I've got an old Triebert bass-saxophone, but I am not satisfied with it's intonation, playing comfort and range. But this model was the only one who was affordable for me. I would like to buy a new bass saxophone, but the only new ones available are Keilwerth, Selmer and Eppelsheim, which are about 12.000 $. I've got an excellent Cannonball Soprano, which was about 1500$ cheaper than other professional sopranos and I like it very much. Considering this, I wonder: Why don't they produce bass-saxophones in Taiwan? It would be wonderful to own an affordable bass-sax with good intonation and handling like the Antigua and Cannonball Sopranos. Why are the currently available basses so expensive? I doubt that the material is 2 times as expensive as the bariton material. I think that they are so expensive, because there is no mass production, they are produced in Europe and/or they are made by only one worker. But I think there will be demand for bass saxophones in the price range between 5000 to 6500 $. Don't you think so? Is there a taiwanese company which is interested in producing bass saxophones?

Thank you, Benny
 
#2 ·
Simple economics, the demand is small so there is little money to be made by increasing supply. I'm sure that Selmer and Eppelsheim don't make much profit from their basses but they are in the business at a different end of the market than the Taiwanese producers would be. The Taiwanese make profits by dealing in volume, you aren't going to sell volume if you are producing bass saxes.
 
#3 ·
OK, this is a reason. but they are producing those sopranino devils, too. and I don't think the demand for them is much higher than that for the basses.
 
#63 ·
Here we are, a decade later, and I guess this never happened, but I'm curious, Merlin, whether it was a case of you mixing up the Chinese bass manufacturers, or of some actual Taiwanese manufacturers considering the idea, doing some prototyping, and then deciding not to go through with it?

Just curious.
 
#5 ·
Merlin said:
Taiwanese basses are on the way. I've seen some companies with prototypes in the works.
Absolutely great! :D Which companys want to produce them? Where did you see them? Did they say anything about the price and the release date?
 
#7 ·
Really Merlin!! Thats kinda cool, if they dont turn out to be total Taiwan crap, Id like to at least try one. I was able to play a buescher Bass as a high school senior, and a selmer bass here at OSU, I liked the Buescher better though, I could play it comfortably with a harness standing, but the selmer was just unweildly, and uncomfortable to play if it wasnt on a stand. Even then though, it wasnt much fun.
 
#9 ·
Any method of producing a more affordable and acceptable Bass Sax I'm all for! If this is truly in the pipeline from Taiwan, I'll buy one.
I have a Conn Bass stencil, but wouldn't mind having a bass with a more modern keywork system without cashing in the life savings to do so.
 
#13 ·
One sound clip is a keilwerth bass sax, NOT the instrument for sale in the auction. The second sound clip is even worse - there isn't even a bass saxophone in the clip - The low saxophone is an Orsi contrabass.

The photos show a photo of a Selmer bass saxophone taken from the Selmer website with "Mason Pro" superimposed on the bell of the Saxophone - although the logo is not aligned properly.

Other photos show a 1920s Buescher bass saxophone. No photos or recordings in these auctions provide any information about the actual instrument being offered for auction. If this horn does indeed exist, there should be at least a prototype available for a photograph. Now is not the time to spend $10,000 blindly on this bass sax.

Don't take my word for it. Just chop everything off the link to the sound clips after ".com" to see the original source of the recordings, and check out the horns used in the sound clips.
 
#14 ·
IWW is marketing a Bass sax from Taiwan, sound clips probably don't do it justice. Only the Keilwerth and Selmer have the modern, tight lever action, so far the Taiwan ones are reminiscent of Buescher/Conn style pinkie tables. Nice larger G# table than the earlier ones that had a round pearl.
I hope they make a market dent, no matter what extraordinary claims the sellers claim, as they are of course, extraordinary instruments anyway.
 
#15 ·
I saw two of the new International Woodwinds bass saxes at the NAMM Show last Saturday. I did not touch them but the sales rep played one of them for me. Wow!!

First of all, the horn had that old-tyme booming sound down low, reminiscent of Adrian Rollini and Joe Rushton's recordings (and the guy who played with Bix). This was a sound that I recall from the Bueschers and Conns (from players who played them in bands where I was playing). Tons of resonance down low. The scale sounded accurate.

Secondly, the bell keys were split (one on each side) like all of the saxophones from the 1920's.

The horns were lacquered brass and appeared to be well made. The price was somewhere around $8K. The pamphlet which I picked up said $9800.00. I sure got the drools over those, but realism soon brought me back. I have no where to put one of these monsters! Gorgeous instruments, though. DAVE
 
#16 ·
Merlin, what companies from Taiwan are working on a bass?
 
#25 ·
Any one who has gone to Disney can catch strolling sax quartet's with bass saxes. They sound great.
I got the bug for a Bass after I heard how easily they add dimension to a sax ensemble and especially out side. The bari just can't fill the low notes like a tuba, but a Bass sax sure can.

As much as I like Brass quintets for German ooompah music, I still lean toward the sax ensemble for its texture and versatility. We can only hope the Taiwan economy can create a world wide glut of well made decent sounding copies of what used to be horns only available for too much money.

The sax is back
would be a great slogan

for those of us sick of Rap Crap and bottled hollywood glamor produced layered music from synthesizers and over produced children's limericks that need vulgarity and violence in the lyrics to act all grown up, let us hope saxes become more affordable throughout the line and the complex sounds of talented young musicians get exposed to its full potential. With a sax in their mouth perhaps we won't have to listen to 18 year olds spewing hate at a world they barely know and surely have never given out enough or lost enough to even understand.

Teenage angst sells, what can one say.

Give me saxophones moaning out the expression of the experienced soul any day.
 
#26 ·
Teenage angst sells, but unfortunately, I don't realistically see many teenagers interested in hearing a saxophone. "Band Geeks" are still ridiculed in highschool, unless their close friends are in it, and even then they are ridiculed. Clothes define the music more than music defines the clothes, and the best clothes are what drive the interest of what sells. No matter what age you are, as soon as you reach that age that clothes let you stop wearing uniforms and start wearing what you want - Sex sells. And also unfortunately, kids desire too much of a quick fix in those teenage years, and have very little patience for anything new.

Now, however, There was that 3rd wave ska period that everyone LIKED horn lines, but that was very very short lived.

Here's to hoping, though.
 
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