Overview
The contrabass sarrusophone is the deepest of the family of sarrusophones, built in three sizes pitched in E♭, C, or B♭. It was made in the 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily in France by its inventor and Parisian instrument maker Pierre-Louis Gautrot and his successor Couesnon & Co., and Evette & Schaeffer. It was also made in Italy by Milan manufacturers Romeo Orsi and Rampone & Cazzani, and in the United States by C. G. Conn, who built instruments in E♭ for US military bands. Romeo Orsi and the German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim make individual contrabass sarrusophones on request.