Are there any genuine bass clarinets in C?

pete said:
The clarinet family is badly named, in a couple places. There is an Eb soprano ("sopranino") clarinet, Eb alto clarinet, and an Eb contralto clarinet. The contralto is sometimes referred to as an "Eb contrabass clarinet." The Bb clarinet line consists of Bb soprano, Bb bass, Bb contrabass, and Bb octobass -- and there's only ever been one octobass built. That's by Leblanc.

Just as a recap ...

* There are no modern C bass clarinets.
* There are a couple places that could custom make you a C bass clarinet if you have at least $20K you're willing to spend. Possibly more.
* If you have a written piece of music and you want a LIVE bass clarinet player to play it, either transpose the part to the correct key by using Sibelius or another notation software OR make sure your bass clarinet player can transpose on sight.
* If you have a written piece of music and you want to use a bass clarinet patch in your DAW or sampler, there's no need to transpose.

If you need a bass clarinet virtual instrument, this one sounds phenomenal and it's only 50 Euro for the Standard library and 90 Euro for the standard library and some extra expressions. Arguably, you could go with the Audio Modeling clarinets pack (higher price), but the bass clarinet doesn't have much growl on the lower end.
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Okay. If I WAS to look for a custom C bass clarinet, what are the places?
 
Also this definitely helps ease things a lot - it looks like the lupophone is the only thing I should really be concerned about - which I know is just an octave down from concert pitch
 
PoweredWindows said:
Okay. If I WAS to look for a custom C bass clarinet, what are the places?
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Quoting Indiana Jones, "... In a museum!"

The two companies that might make you one, off the top of my head and I may be repeating myself, would be Orsi and Benedikt Eppelsheim. Orsi has made odd and one-off instruments for quite a while (here's a pic of their Eb contralto with mostly simple-system/sax fingerings). Eppelsheim is mentioned because, well, he makes custom horns.
 
pete said:
Quoting Indiana Jones, "... In a museum!"

The two companies that might make you one, off the top of my head and I may be repeating myself, would be Orsi and Benedikt Eppelsheim. Orsi has made odd and one-off instruments for quite a while (here's a pic of their Eb contralto with mostly simple-system/sax fingerings). Eppelsheim is mentioned because, well, he makes custom horns.
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While he'd probably encourage you to learn on a Bb bass, (which I'll add, isn't that confusing to people I know with perfect pitch, from what I know. You can also just learn it in concert pitch, where a "C" would be a Bb, like what you hear.) Steve Fox up in Canada would probably be able to make you one, too-I believe he has made a few basses in A.

Edit: the you in that is referring to PoweredEnergy, if that wasn't clear.
 
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