Modern bass saxophones can range in price from $3000 to over $30,000, and like a wise person once said: You get what you pay for. In this section of my site I’ll try and explore some of the current crop of brand new, newish, or relatively modern bass saxophones.
These instruments from around the globe range from carefully, painstakingly handcrafted pieces of craftsmanship that take hundreds of hours to complete, to cheap pieces of Chinese junk that come rolling off assembly lines with seemingly little attention paid to quality assurance.
In these modern bass saxes we see a little more variance when it comes to their design. While many are built in the traditional two styles of: 1. vintage American style, AKA long wrap, and 2. French style, AKA short wrap, certain manufacturers—notably Eppelsheim from Germany, and J’Elle Stainer from Brazil—also invented new designs specific to their brand.
I should note that this is in no means necessarily a complete listing. There may be one or another smaller manufacturer that I missed. Additionally, I am researching one or two others currently who had prototypes in the works years ago, but for which I can’t seem to find any production models.
Asian-made Bass Saxophones
European-made Bass Saxophones
- Benedict Eppelsheim
- Julius Keilwerth
- Selmer
South American-made Bass Saxophones
- J’Élle Stainer
- Galassine
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