This is the first second-hand soprillo I've seen for sale.
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FS: Eppelsheim Soprillo
- Thread starter Gandalfe
- Start date
Either an extreme coincidence, or this is owned by the person who runs soprillo.com.
I snagged some pics from another Soprillo up on eBay earlier this year. They definitely don't come around often.
The seller's also got a really nice looking Zephyr Special for sale ...
I snagged some pics from another Soprillo up on eBay earlier this year. They definitely don't come around often.
The seller's also got a really nice looking Zephyr Special for sale ...
Actually I think this is maybe the 3rd or 4th that I've seen on eBay. Yup, it was the 4th. I just checked in my gallery.
One was being sold by Antillio Bernini, but I suspect it wasn't his own horn. I'm not sure which of the 3 in my gallery it was now though.
One was being sold by Antillio Bernini, but I suspect it wasn't his own horn. I'm not sure which of the 3 in my gallery it was now though.
I think the seller is using pics from the old soprillo.com site. They don't come up for sale used very often. When I ordered mine, Benedikt Eppelsheim offered faster delivery if I accepted a used one from the leader of the Nuclear Whales. I guess the first owner couldn't play it to his satisfaction, which is believable because Soprillos are very hard to play.
When Benedikt changed the Soprillo and added pearls on the keys, he offered to trade me a new one for my old one - no charge. I had helped him promote the Soprillo and other instruments with my videos, but I paid the same price for the horns as anyone else, so he did me some favors. I traded for the newer Soprillo, although the first one played just as well. The second owner of my original Soprillo, and I have forgotten who it is, posted some recordings and sounded great.
The Soprillo is very well made, but requires a lot of dedication. Nigel Wood shows what is possible, but switching to Soprillo is like switching to oboe. I know of one top Los Angeles woodwind doubler who owns one, and he told me he refuses to play it in public. Of course, he has a big reputation at stake. I don't, so I play mine now and then where others can hear me - always to a positive response.
When Benedikt changed the Soprillo and added pearls on the keys, he offered to trade me a new one for my old one - no charge. I had helped him promote the Soprillo and other instruments with my videos, but I paid the same price for the horns as anyone else, so he did me some favors. I traded for the newer Soprillo, although the first one played just as well. The second owner of my original Soprillo, and I have forgotten who it is, posted some recordings and sounded great.
The Soprillo is very well made, but requires a lot of dedication. Nigel Wood shows what is possible, but switching to Soprillo is like switching to oboe. I know of one top Los Angeles woodwind doubler who owns one, and he told me he refuses to play it in public. Of course, he has a big reputation at stake. I don't, so I play mine now and then where others can hear me - always to a positive response.
The mouthpiece is fixed (as in position) on the Soprillo, right?
Recently, I watched the video on YouTube where folks from the US army band sax section played with some of Dr. Paul Cohen's horns. One guy played the Eppelsheim Tubax (Eb contrabass sax) and sounded like he had no problems at all -- and Dr. Cohen said the horn was one of the easiest horns to play. Another guy then tried to play Dr. Cohen's vintage 1920s Evette-Schaeffer contrabass (all 6 and 1/2 feet of it) and had more than a few problems.
You can move the Soprillo mouthpiece on the cork like any other saxophone mouthpiece, for tuning. The octave key in the mouthpiece can be activated over a range of positions equalling about 1/4 inch - more than enough for this little horn.
