Bass sax for Sax Choir...

MexicanDragon

How does one convince the money people to aquire one when they're focusing on orchestral ventures?

After a local sax choir in the area disbanded a couple years ago when the leader was spending more time focusing on his kid's sax ventures on the collegiate level (he is the sax instructor at a local university), there was a void left for some in the area.

My teacher (classical sax teacher at a different university) played in that one, and I was talking to her one day about it. We threw around the idea of her starting one, and after about a month I hear from her that she's going to do it, starting next spring semester (music majors, at least wind players, I guess, have to march. Where I went for a couple years, they were required to march 4 years). One problem is that there is no bass sax at the university, and she has been requesting one for a couple years now. She's a die-hard Selmer fan, but it seems those are running around 18k for the S80II bass now. I've shown her the IW bass, and talked to her about vintage ones (would be half the price, but 9k used might be hard to justify for a program, maybe moreso than 18 new).

Any secrets out there to get admin to empty their pockets for instruments? Any saxophone philanthropists out there we could plead our (coffin-shaped) case to? ;)

It'd be nice to have a head start and be well prepared when this choir gets up in about 6 months, just coming at it from another angle... thanks.

***BRENT**
 
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MexicanDragon said:
Any secrets out there to get admin to empty their pockets for instruments?
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I recommend blackmail. Just don't get caught.

Seriously, if I had a budget of $18K for a saxophone choir (the S80 bass is actually closer to $25K on saxshop.nl), I wouldn't be spending it all on a bass. Or possibly any of it on a bass.

I could buy several good-condition used sopraninos, sopranos, altos, tenors, baritones for that price -- and in Eb, Bb, C and F. The bass is shiny, but should I outfit 9 to 18 people (or more) or one? I'd have to be able to buy music, too. And I might need to buy stands and chairs. Or pay for sound equipment. Or transportation.

A mentioned in another thread, a bass can play most of the music a bari can play -- and vice-versa. Get a nice large chamber mouthpiece and play bari like you've got big lungs.

I like the bass. I really do. However, I've run music departments. My budget was considerably less than $18K and I used it to only buy essential equipment.
 
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I bought my bass saxophone from Paul Coats and Wayne Shell of the Bayou Sax Ensemble in Louisiana. The reason they sold it, is because they inadvertently ended up with 2 bass saxophones for their sax ensemble, but only needed 1.

If I remember correctly, the ensemble came under the auspices of the community band. Under the umbrella of the community band, the ensemble applied for, and received funding for a bass saxophone through a foundation of some kind. I can't really remember the ins and outs of all that happened, but in the end, the sax ensemble ended up with not one, but 2 bass saxophones. One was a gold plated Buescher that they purchased through Vintage Sax, the other was the silver plated Buescher that they managed to buy through an auction when the school district that owned it, decided to sell it. (For the full story see the relevant pages of my website.)

You might want to hunt Paul Coats down. He is easy to find. He is one of the mods on the Bass Saxophone Co-op. He is a very nice guy, and will take the time to tell you how they went about securing some funding for a vintage bass. Tell him Helen suggested that you get in touch with him and ask about his experience with regards to getting funding for a bass.

If an outside source of funding could be found, then the acquisition of a bass would not take away funds from anything else.

Just my 2 virtual cents...And worth every penny thereof... :-D
 
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I wish I could buy that. I'm pretty sure the wife would kill me.
 
Thanks for the replies so far, I appreciate it.

@Pete: There isn't, afaik, a "budget" per se for this venture. The bass sax has been requested for a while now to fill out the sax studio, but the way the music department doles out $$$ for instruments is odd (from my understanding). They only allow one purchase at a time department wide. After 3 sub-par sopranos came through and were sent back, they bought (against the urging of a sax professor) the 4th just so they could go on to buy a set of tympanis, iirc. I don't see why one couldn't, knowing the cost of the horn, just appropriate funds for it and go on to the next line item. I guess that would make too much sense.

As far as outfitting the players, I believe all the horns are covered from sopranino to bari(s), at least in Bb and Eb. I believe there are a couple basses floating around the area, but access to them is not guarantee'd by any means.

@Helen: Thanks for the info. I'm in the middle of switching internet providers at the moment, so I'm on dial-up through my cellphone (slower than 56k... sigh. GPRS connections when EDGE is just 2 miles away saddens me... not to mention I don't have unl data with my EV-DO Rev.0 phone... sigh). This is putting a damper on a lot of the research I can do, and I'm going to have to migrate all of my e-mail stuff to probably gmail, but I'll definately try to get in touch with PC in the coming days, if not sooner. Congrats on your horn, btw... I read your page(s) on it... nice.

@Gandalfe: I signed up for the BSC, just gotta get the e-mail (I have to check it on my phone, but can't do it until I sign off the comp... grrr. Can't wait til 3G.) BTW... I wish you luck on the sale of your (OTHER!?!?!?!?!) bass. I need to look around for pix of your E-Bass

@Ed: Ditto ;)

**BRENT**
 
Well, if it is a piece of equipment for a "community"-type position, I think I'd further recommend that the horn is a modern instrument -- and not an IW (I've heard too many stories about subpar construction).

If you're talking about a bass in a "here, you're playing bass this week" setting, that essentially means the person will not be a bass specialist. That means you might not realize that you need to know how to play false fingerings, lip up notes, play that C with the chromatic fingering, etc. A modern horn takes away a lot of those problems, particularly the Eppelsheim, from what I hear from Groovekiller and Gandalfe.

There have been some comments here, in the past, that suggest that the Selmer is probably outclassed by the Keilwerth and Eppelsheim. Possibly severly so: I can't say, as I've only played a Conn New Wonder bass.
 
This band will be a university based band, with a few outsiders filling out the rest. I'm sure the bass part will be handled by one of the university students. I know there is one who is quite fond of/specializing in bari, and I'm sure he'd be the one at the front of the line to take on the bass part. There is, however, another local player who used to be in the classical sax prof's as the bari player. He has experience on bass and graduated with a music degree from another a different area university (and was, I believe, a member of the now disbanded choir.)

From what I've been reading... the Eppelsheim seems to be the way to go...

**BRENT**
 
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