The Alto does have a wonderful range. It has much of the guts of a bass, but not so extreme, and the clarion sounds much nicer than (typically) that of a bass. I would love it more if not for the often-awkward Eb. But it's good for jazz. I've had rockin' good times playing low rhythmic backup parts in songs like Killer Joe. And in the clarion, it doesn't shout "I'm a clarinet" like a soprano does.
I went for Vito altos because I like non-wood, and there was some agreement somewhere, maybe at sax-on-the-web, that Vito is better than Bundy. I haven't had opportunity to compare, but I do appreciate the high quality keywork. I bought 2 broken ones, hoping to fix one. Now I have 2 players. But that's a good way to be sure to get a good one. If they both get running, there's a basis for comparison to pick the best one or to try an improvement, and then have a control in the experiment.
