An incredible bass saxophone made by leading bass sax specialist, Benedikt Eppelsheim

Xtreme Saxes by Benedikt Eppelsheim in Germany. Every component is handcrafted by Benedikt to the highest standard resulting in a very special instrument that oozes quality. Decorated with fine engraving.

Low Bb to high F#, new high register key, 3 automatic octave keys, uses baritone or bass mouthpiece, narrow bore for less air consumption, brass with old gold lacquer. With a light case, mouthpiece & tools.

Features

- range Bb 3-F#6, sounding Db1-A 3

- additional altissimo register key to written D 7, sounding F 4

- 1 octave below the baritone saxophone

- baritone saxophone mouthpiece

- 3 automatic speaker keys

- narrow bore for less air consumption and a reasonable overall height (114 cm = 45 inches) by a completely new body design

-same fingering as any modern saxophone

Staff Review

"I am still on a high from playing this AMAZING instrument!! All I can say, without trying to exaggerate too much, is that this horn is brilliant! Before even playing it you have to admire it's sheer beauty as an object. The lacquer colour is a gorgeous deep gold and there is a beautifully worked engraving down the length of the bell.

A baritone mouthpiece of any kind fits very nicely on to the slender neck, and so far our brief experimentation has led us to believe that an Otto Link metal baritone piece (tip opening 8 in this case) with a Rico Royal no. 2.5 gives a nice big bellowing sound. For me the most fascinating thing about this horn is that, for a piece of tubing that must be around 12 foot in total (when un-coiled) it produces the most free-blowing sound! Credit must be due to Benedict Epplesheim for engineering a horn that utilizes a very narrow bore thus allowing the player to play with huge dynamic control. I honestly found the playing experience enormous fun but relatively easy in terms of note production.

It has to be said that the quality of build and engineering on this horn is simply superb! When playing it there's a real feeling of complete solidarity and utter precision in the keywork and mechanism - even down to keywork features such as the right-hand side keys that are operated by an extremely slick counter-balanced rocker mechanism. The sax got shipped to us in an equally well-designed and hugely protective case - obviously, this is something that Benedict takes seriously as he is shipping these fine horns all around the world (although he has only made a small handful!) and I'm sure that he wants them to arrive in the same perfectly set-up playing order that it left his workshop in Munich! Well, the answer to this one is, yes, the sax just feels like it is set up just perfectly - you can just tell! Another thing to mention and praise is the intonation. Without getting a tuner out (I'm not sure if it would pick up the gruff tones down in the low end) you can just hear that the pitch all lines up perfectly. Octaves feel solid, diatonic intervals feel and sound bang-on as you run up and down various scales.

Wowzers, this sax costs a lot of money, but I tell you what - if I had some kind of lucky inheritance come my way I'd love to have one in my music room!" Jim - SAX

Bass Saxophones