The tubax is a modified contrabass saxophone developed in 1999 by the German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim. Although it has the same fingering as the saxophone, it has a narrower bore, smaller mouthpiece, and more compactly folded tubing. The tubax exists in E♭ contrabass and B♭ or C subcontrabass sizes. Its name is a portmanteau of the words "tuba" and "sax". History The first size of tubax to be developed was the E♭ tubax. It first appeared in 1998, and was intended as a more practical alternative to the somewhat unwieldy contrabass saxophone. The larger B♭ tubax appeared soon after and is equivalent to the subcontrabass saxophone, which although envisioned by Adolphe Sax in his 1846 patent, was only first built in 2010 by Brazilian manufacturer J'Élle Stainer. This subcontrabass size is also available in C, but only one model has been manufactured, sold to Thomas Mejer of Switzerland in July 2002. Construction The E♭ and B♭ tubax have the same lengths of tubing and ranges as the contrabass and subcontrabass saxophones respectively, but are much more compact. They are built with a narrower bore somewhere between a regular saxophone and a contrabass sarrusophone, and use comparatively smaller baritone or bass saxophone mouthpieces. The tubax is folded four times to stand only high for the E♭ tubax, not much taller than a baritone saxophone, yet an octave lower. Similarly, the B♭ tubax stands tall, nearly half of the enormous height of an equivalent subcontrabass saxophone. These smaller sizes and more accessible key placements result in more portable and ergonomical instruments. These changes result in a more focused and compact timbre than that of the full-sized saxophones, and have also lead to some debate over whether the tubax is really a member of the saxophone family. Notable tubax performers Paul Cohen Yo-yo Su Dror Feiler Blaise Garza Vinny Golia Mats Gustafsson Oliver Saar Jarno Sarkula Steffen Schorn Jim Sheppard* Marcus Weiss References External links Benedikt Eppelsheim Website Fred Bayer's Tubax Page Article about CD featuring tubax Jay C. Easton's B♭ Tubax page tubax -- earthquake saxophone Masayuki Kuroda's page Listening MP3 of a tubax being played by Randy Emerick, with the Jerry Fischer Orchestra, Hollywood Florida (playing "Stardust", arr. by Mike Lewis) MP3 of two B♭ subcontrabass tubaxes (overdubbed), playing movement 1 of Duet for Basses by Walter S. Hartley, performed by Jay C. Easton Saxophones Contrabass instruments 1999 musical instruments