You can't have a bass, and expect it to play well, if you don't have a good repair technician who knows the peculiarities of bass saxophones. While living in Fredericton I managed to find one, but his shop was a five-hour drive from my home. Layne Francis is a great repair tech and a pro player from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He owned his own bass sax up until a few years ago, when he sold it to a player from Toronto.

Layne seemed to really enjoy having my bass sax in his shop--perhaps a little too much, as you can see from this picture.