Sarrusophone - Construction

Construction

All members of the sarrusophone family are made of metal, with a conical bore, and the larger members of the family resemble the ophicleide in shape. Like the oboe and bassoon, all sizes of sarrusophone were originally designed to be played with a double reed. Later, single reed mouthpieces were developed which resemble alto or soprano saxophone mouthpieces. It is unclear if these were available for all sizes of the sarrusophone family, the most common examples being for the E♭ contrabass.

The fingering of the sarrusophone is nearly identical to that of the saxophone. This similarity caused Adolphe Sax to file and lose at least one lawsuit against Gautrot, claiming infringement upon his patent for the saxophone. Sax lost on the grounds that the tone produced by the two families of instruments is markedly different, despite their mechanical similarities. However, because the sarrusophone never reached wide acceptance, makers were not inclined to develop its mechanism to the same extent as that of the saxophone. Although there are likely exceptions, features of the sarrusophone's mechanism generally include:

• Non-automatic octave keys (necessary to produce the "standard" top 4th of its range). From sopranino through bass, 2 octave keys. The contra basses (and perhaps some basses) have 3, the 3rd key being used for the notes D and E♭ directly above the octave break, only
• No articulated G♯, bis B♭, F♯ trill keys or 1/1 and 1/2 B♭ as found on the saxophone. The top and bottom key stacks are not linked. Surprisingly though, a B to C trill key as found on the saxophone did more or less become standard
• The key for low B♭ is activated by the left thumb as opposed to the left little finger as on the saxophone
• A key for rapid alternation across the C-D break. This key can also be used to play high D as well. This may be taken to be an equivalent of the high D palm key of a saxophone, although on the sarrusophone the location of the touchpiece varied.
• No palm keys for playing the top range. Using the non-automatic register keys, 3rd harmonics are easily available, rendering palm keys unnecessary. The relatively narrow bore of the sarrusophone also aids in the rendering of these 3rd harmonics

On earlier instruments, the use of rollers on the low E♭ and C natural keys seems to have been more common than having them on the G♯, low C♯ and B natural keys. Additionally on some (all?) instruments made by Buffet in the early 20th century, the G♯ key is "semi-articulated" so that a G natural to G♯ trill can be made by an additional touchpiece for the right hand. Saxophones of this time period also have this mechanism. Additionally, there is no connection from G♯ to low C♯ or low B natural, which is also identical to how saxophones were constructed at that time.