Tubax

Tubax

Woodwind instrument
Classification	Single-reed
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	422.212-71 (Single-reed aerophone with keys)
Inventor(s)	Benedikt Eppelsheim
Developed	First derived in 1999 from the contrabass saxophone
Playing range
Tubax is a transposing instrument in treble clef; E♭ tubax sounds two octaves and a major sixth lower, to D♭1; the B♭ tubax three octaves and a second lower, to A♭0
Related instruments
Sizes: Soprillo Sopranino Soprano Alto Tenor Baritone Bass Contrabass Subcontrabass Orchestral saxophones: C soprano Mezzo-soprano C melody Specialty saxophones: Aulochrome Tubax
Musicians
Paul Cohen Dror Feiler Blaise Garza Vinny Golia Mats Gustafsson Uwe Ladwig Pat Posey Jarno Sarkula Steffen Schorn Jim Sheppard Marcus Weiss
Builders
Benedikt Eppelsheim

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, Eppelsheim's design reduces the amount of expansion of its conical bore in relation to the length of tubing, resulting in a smaller volume of resonant air column. This allows for it to use a smaller mouthpiece (baritone or bass, instead of a larger contrabass mouthpiece), and more compactly folded tubing. The tubax exists in E♭ contrabass and B♭ or C subcontrabass sizes. Its name is a combination of the words "tuba" and "saxophone".^[1]