They are great!
I will ask the principal, Joel Gonzales, what his bass is next time I meet him. He is one of the teachers here at our school. The player behind him in the back row, Michal Stadnicki, was principal for ca 30 years I think. I'm studying with him.
I have heard being able to play the low notes, below E, is more or less mandatory in DR Symphony and at the royal danish opera orchestra. So you basically have to play 5-strings or extension. Unless you are principal, then you can play whatever you like. But maybe this is common practice worldwide? I know that in germany and austria, 5-strings is what you always play in orchestra. In Sweden, were I'm from, I think it varies from orchestra to orchestra.
I'm not a professional orchestral musician (yet!
) but I hoping to elbow myself into that world. I have been freelancing as jazzer (and a bunch of other stuff) for about a decade, orchestral music is relatively new for me and I'm in my 1st year of masters. I try to work as hard as I can and trust that it will lead to something.