LAKSAR REESE: Hi. This is Laksar Reese with International Woodwind. I'm the president of International Woodwind. This is the IW 601 bass saxophone. We're the only company in the U.S. making a bass saxophone, and one of the few in the world that make one.

This is a unique instrument. It's a bass saxophone. It's based on -- inspired we'll say by the vintage bass saxophones from the golden era of bass saxophones from the 30s and 40s except we modernized the key work and we took it all the way to a high F. It's in the key of Bb, it's an octave lower than a tenor, and it plays pretty darn low.

JOE WALLACE: How difficult was it to engineer this?

LAKSAR REESE: It was a little difficult. It wasn't easy. It took us about a year and a half working on the design until we were happy with it and now it's playing excellent now. We've got a lot of dealers selling it, Sam Ash and the Woodwind and Brasswind sellers, as well as a number of dealers down the East Coast, and you can check us out online at InternationalWoodwind.Com

JOE WALLACE: Now, why a bass sax like this? Why the big design? What inspired all this?

LAKSAR REESE: What's that again?

JOE WALLACE: Why such a big design?

LAKSAR REESE: Well, the bigger the design, the lower the pitch of the instrument. The larger the bell and the larger the length of the instrument, the lower it's going to be in pitch.