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Clarinets and Sax

I'm looking for a few things cause aren't we all. Right now my shopping list is

Metal bass clarinet of really any variety
Conn F mezzo sax
Linton Bb Contrabass clarinet
A used soprillo if anyone has got one
A bass sax
A contrabass sax preferably used I cant really afford the new prices

Im not expecting to get many responses but if anyones got any of these for sale please let me know
 
You might reach out to Paul Maslin at PM Woodwinds. It seems like a lot of "rare and collectible" instruments pass through his shop. Right now he has a metal Leblanc contralto clarinet. At one point he had three or four bass saxes listed, but they are gone now. Also several F mezzos listed as sold.
 
You might reach out to Paul Maslin at PM Woodwinds. It seems like a lot of "rare and collectible" instruments pass through his shop. Right now he has a metal Leblanc contralto clarinet. At one point he had three or four bass saxes listed, but they are gone now. Also several F mezzos listed as sold.
Ive already got a leblanc paperclip contralto but thanks for the advice
 
I'm looking for a few things cause aren't we all. Right now my shopping list is

Metal bass clarinet of really any variety
Conn F mezzo sax
Linton Bb Contrabass clarinet
A used soprillo if anyone has got one
A bass sax
A contrabass sax preferably used I cant really afford the new prices

Im not expecting to get many responses but if anyones got any of these for sale please let me know
Oh I forgot to add sarrusophone. Literally any kind of sarrusophone
 
The Linton contra clarinet is in Eb, so you'll only be able to get a Bb contra by calling up Orsi and asking them to make you one :D. Also note that the Linton's mouthpiece is not standard size.

When I check ebay for horns, if I find something interesting, I try to post it here. I list some Sarrusophones in this thread. I've listed a bunch of things, including F Mezzos, in this thread. Quinn the Eskimo (I should get paid more for mentioning him all the time) has had all of the horns you mention at one time or another, with maybe the exception of the Linton and contrabass sax, as has Paul Maslin, as saxhound mentioned.

Being realistic with your list, it's *possible* that you'll find an F Mezzo or the Linton contralto in the $3000 range. I can't remember a time I've seen bass saxophones in the below $6K range. New Soprillos are currently in the close to $4000 range and I think I've only seen maybe one or two used ones out there since they were introduced. You can look at the threads I mentioned and find an average price for some other things on your list in the $5K+ range.

You didn't mention Rothophones. You need several in your collection :p.

I also suppose it's possible that someone has a big, hulking contrabass saxophone in their attic and hasn't bothered trying to find out a value for it, but most people know that there's such a thing as ebay. It could happen. Hey, I'm writing this sentence using a 1994 IBM Model M keyboard that I bought for relatively cheap and I've fixed it up to look pretty much brand new. In this condition, it's worth appx. three times what I paid for it -- although it's nice enough that I might keep it :D.

I wish you luck. If you do have a decent paying job and you're still working throughout this coronavirus stuff, it's a buyer's market.
 
The Linton contra clarinet is in Eb, so you'll only be able to get a Bb contra by calling up Orsi and asking them to make you one :D. Also note that the Linton's mouthpiece is not standard size.

When I check ebay for horns, if I find something interesting, I try to post it here. I list some Sarrusophones in this thread. I've listed a bunch of things, including F Mezzos, in this thread. Quinn the Eskimo (I should get paid more for mentioning him all the time) has had all of the horns you mention at one time or another, with maybe the exception of the Linton and contrabass sax, as has Paul Maslin, as saxhound mentioned.

Being realistic with your list, it's *possible* that you'll find an F Mezzo or the Linton contralto in the $3000 range. I can't remember a time I've seen bass saxophones in the below $6K range. New Soprillos are currently in the close to $4000 range and I think I've only seen maybe one or two used ones out there since they were introduced. You can look at the threads I mentioned and find an average price for some other things on your list in the $5K+ range.

You didn't mention Rothophones. You need several in your collection :p.

I also suppose it's possible that someone has a big, hulking contrabass saxophone in their attic and hasn't bothered trying to find out a value for it, but most people know that there's such a thing as ebay. It could happen. Hey, I'm writing this sentence using a 1994 IBM Model M keyboard that I bought for relatively cheap and I've fixed it up to look pretty much brand new. In this condition, it's worth appx. three times what I paid for it -- although it's nice enough that I might keep it :D.

I wish you luck. If you do have a decent paying job and you're still working throughout this coronavirus stuff, it's a buyer's market.
Suprisingly enough I found two soprano and two contrabass sarrusophones for sale recently. The only reason I wanted a contrabass sarrusophone is because I couldn't afford a italian made stainer or german made eppelsheim. But after doing lots of searching on the brazilian buy and sell websites I found a brazilian made contrabass sax for cheap. The nice thing about Stainer is that they have two markets the italian made instruments which go all over the world and the brazilian made ones that stay in brazil. The brazilian ones are not even close to as good as most contrabass saxes on the market but sound pretty damn good. So im gonna be buying one of those instruments from a guy in brazil ( yes i verified the instrument is real). Ive been doing lots of reaserch on the brazilian market of saxophones and its a whole other universe over there. If your curios im going to be buying this contrabass sax for 10 grand CAD.
 
If anyones curios on this whole other world of saxophones im talking about copy paste the next few messages into whatever search engine and go down the deep rabbit whole of brazilian saxes

Sax baixo com sol grave ( this means bass sax with Low g extension)
sax contrabaixo
sax sub contrabaixo
sax baritono com sol grave
 
The Linton contra clarinet is in Eb, so you'll only be able to get a Bb contra by calling up Orsi and asking them to make you one :D. Also note that the Linton's mouthpiece is not standard size.

No... the vast majority of the Orsi/Linton contras are definitely all in B♭. I see a ton online mislabeled as contra-altos though. But they are all B♭ contrabasses. E♭s also exist, but I've only seen a couple of them. You can tell the difference because the bell is significantly smaller. The bell of B♭ comes all the way back up like a bari sax. On the E♭ it's down around the right hand.
 
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No... the vast majority of the Orsi/Linton contras are definitely all in B♭. I see a ton online mislabeled as contra-altos though. But they are all B♭ contrabasses. E♭s also exist, but I've only seen a couple of them. You can tell the difference because the bell is significantly smaller. The bell of B♭ comes all the way back up like a bari sax. On the E♭ it's down around the right hand.
Not that I don't trust you or anything, I'm going to want some proof on that. It took me years of pestering people to get back the answer of "Eb contralto." I'm absolutely serious. It's like people would drop off the face of the earth when I asked them. So, in other words, if I don't hear from you again, thanks for posting :D.

FWIW, I also thought that all of them were nickel or silver plated, until I found a lacquered brass one.
 
Not that I don't trust you or anything, I'm going to want some proof on that. It took me years of pestering people to get back the answer of "Eb contralto." I'm absolutely serious. It's like people would drop off the face of the earth when I asked them. So, in other words, if I don't hear from you again, thanks for posting :D.

FWIW, I also thought that all of them were nickel or silver plated, until I found a lacquered brass one.
I have one right here... what proof do you want? I think the issue comes from this also ridiculous claim that it has ‘saxophone fingerings’. It doesn’t. It’s not even an Albert system. It’s a Boehm system clarinet but the keywork and instrument just feels like a saxophone. There’s no alternate pinky keys and you have to hold down F/C in order to play E/B or F#/C#. But otherwise, it’s just like any other Boehm clarinet. But, one transposition trick for playing E♭ parts on a B♭ clarinet is to think saxophone fingerings in the low register. So when you play low F on a clarinet, it feels the same as playing a C on a sax, and F on a B♭ horn and C on an E♭ horn produce the same sounding pitch. Since the Orsi Linton contrabass clarinet is the same size, shape, and feel as a bari sax, if someone were to play that fingering and approach the horn as if it were in E♭, all the pitches would coordinate... until you go to the second register were everything would be all messed up... so I don’t know what they would be thinking at that point. But anyway, that’s my theory as to why this misinformation has spread.
 
For comparison, these are the two horns.
 

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I have one right here... what proof do you want?
You have a Linton Bb contra or Eb contra?

Bell length on a clarinet can easily be a case of a horn that goes down to low C, rather than low Eb. There are also a lot of mechanical differences between the two horns pictured. Easy one to point out would be that one has a key on the left side of the bell and another has one on the right. The picture angle is not incredibly good, either.

Again, all of this isn't because I don't believe you, it's because you're actually here and (now) you say you have one, so I really, really want to confirm it.
 
I have a B♭ Linton. As I said, that's what most of them are.

They all only go to E, not C. You can also see the proportions in the neck are different. Mechanical differences, sure, because they're different instruments... one's in B♭ and the other E♭, so I'm not entirely sure what you mean by mentioning it...

I appreciate wanting to be absolutely sure. I can assure that, as someone who is nearly finished with a PhD researching the contrabass clarinet, that the majority of the Orsi-Lintons are 100% without a doubt in B♭.

Here, just watch this video...
Marco starts on a concert pitch A♭1 and descends to a D (albeit out of tune). An E♭ contra would bottom out at G. That D is the low E of the B♭ horn.

Here's some better shots of an E♭ instrument (both Linton and Orsi models), and this sale listing has a lot of good shots of a B♭ Linton https://reverb.com/uk/item/15615917...-contrabass-clarinet-with-original-mouthpiece
 

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I'm also curious as to how you arrived at your initial assertion that all the Orsi/Lintons were E♭ horns? I plan on writing an article debunking various bits of contra misinformation floating around the internets. As I see many of these instruments mislabeled as contra-altos, it's clear that there is some fairly widespread confusion about it. Knowing how it started would be helpful in understanding why that confusion exists.
 
Thanks for the confirmation.

Knowing how it started would be helpful in understanding why that confusion exists.
The main thing is what I mentioned before: I try to ask someone that posts that they have a Linton contra and then they disappear, except for the one person that confirmed Eb contra. Nobody's said anything about keywork.

While my first instrument was Bb (soprano) clarinet and I've played a lot of Bb bass and BBb contrabass, I generally haven't done much research on them unless they sparks my interest. A couple examples would be the Linton horns, Uebel aluminum horns, and metal/plated bass clarinets. In the latter two cases, there's an awful lot of stuff out there, so no need to do more research on my part. FWIW, I also have probably the largest collection of Claude Laurent pictures and other info conglomerated into one website.

a PhD researching the contrabass clarinet,
You can actually get that? Cool. Maybe I'll see if I can get that for sax.
 
I'm looking for a few things cause aren't we all. Right now my shopping list is

Metal bass clarinet of really any variety
Conn F mezzo sax
Linton Bb Contrabass clarinet
A used soprillo if anyone has got one
A bass sax
A contrabass sax preferably used I cant really afford the new prices
Im not expecting to get many responses but if anyones got any of these for sale please let me know
So how are you making out on your "wish list"? What instruments are you still missing?

Have you contacted Paul at PM Woodwind yet? Paul always has a great selection of unusual horns either in stock, or coming in. He is my go-to guy for the rare and unusual. I got my lovely Blackgold Couf bari from him. (1 of only 2 we know of in the world.)

If I may ask, why are you looking for all these weird and wonderful horns? Don't get me wrong, I get the whole wanting horns to play them thing--I have >30 saxes alone, and many of them are lovely specimens of some rare birds. That said, until COVID hit, I was also a gigging musician. The only horn that wasn't get out at all really was my bass sax. As a matter of fact, I actively looked for ways NOT to use it in a pit job 2 years ago, since I didn't want to drag it back and forth each night, and wasn't comfortable leaving it in the theatre unattended.

So with such an eclectic list of horns, I'm curious what a person is looking to do with them.


Suprisingly enough I found two soprano and two contrabass sarrusophones for sale recently. The only reason I wanted a contrabass sarrusophone is because I couldn't afford a italian made stainer or german made eppelsheim. But after doing lots of searching on the brazilian buy and sell websites I found a brazilian made contrabass sax for cheap. The nice thing about Stainer is that they have two markets the italian made instruments which go all over the world and the brazilian made ones that stay in brazil. The brazilian ones are not even close to as good as most contrabass saxes on the market but sound pretty damn good. So im gonna be buying one of those instruments from a guy in brazil ( yes i verified the instrument is real). Ive been doing lots of reaserch on the brazilian market of saxophones and its a whole other universe over there. If your curios im going to be buying this contrabass sax for 10 grand CAD.

How did that 10K CAD contra turn out?
 
Thanks for the confirmation.


The main thing is what I mentioned before: I try to ask someone that posts that they have a Linton contra and then they disappear, except for the one person that confirmed Eb contra. Nobody's said anything about keywork.

While my first instrument was Bb (soprano) clarinet and I've played a lot of Bb bass and BBb contrabass, I generally haven't done much research on them unless they sparks my interest. A couple examples would be the Linton horns, Uebel aluminum horns, and metal/plated bass clarinets. In the latter two cases, there's an awful lot of stuff out there, so no need to do more research on my part. FWIW, I also have probably the largest collection of Claude Laurent pictures and other info conglomerated into one website.


You can actually get that? Cool. Maybe I'll see if I can get that for sax.
Here, found something more for you from a 1967 Linton catalogue, courtesy of Frank Diaz.
And from a 1998 Orsi catalogue, by way of Georg Kühner.
 

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So how are you making out on your "wish list"? What instruments are you still missing?

Have you contacted Paul at PM Woodwind yet? Paul always has a great selection of unusual horns either in stock, or coming in. He is my go-to guy for the rare and unusual. I got my lovely Blackgold Couf bari from him. (1 of only 2 we know of in the world.)

If I may ask, why are you looking for all these weird and wonderful horns? Don't get me wrong, I get the whole wanting horns to play them thing--I have >30 saxes alone, and many of them are lovely specimens of some rare birds. That said, until COVID hit, I was also a gigging musician. The only horn that wasn't get out at all really was my bass sax. As a matter of fact, I actively looked for ways NOT to use it in a pit job 2 years ago, since I didn't want to drag it back and forth each night, and wasn't comfortable leaving it in the theatre unattended.

So with such an eclectic list of horns, I'm curious what a person is looking to do with them.




How did that 10K CAD contra turn out?
Hey. Trying to ship the 10k contra was an absolute pain. Due to a severe language barrier we could not work out shipping details and I gave up out of frustration. I'm now in the market for a bass sax or if anyone knows anybody in brazil that speaks good English and is trust worthy. I've also been trying to figure out where people in brazil are actually buying them new to see if I could order one directly from them. But as I said if I can find a bass sax somewhat close I'd be willing to trade my low cc contra alto which i've got a crap ton of work done on lately for the horn and some money to go with it.
 
There was a Buescher bass on Vancouver Island. I don't know if it sold or not. They were asking waaay too much for it. Don't know what ended up happening with it. Would like me to ask?
 
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