Playable French System Bassoon, Buffet Style, Unbranded, Teak, Historic Collection

Make us an offer on this gorgeous playable French system bassoon.

While entirely unmarked and unbranded, the general lines of the instrument and keywork look very like Buffet or Triebert.

The wood looks too light a colour to be rosewood, with the unvarnished sections a finely-grained golden brown. It looks like teak to me.

All keys move and rebound freely, and the instrument plays easily to low Bb, on good leather pads, which are well-seated. However, it seems each size of pad installed is of a different colour, with the larger pads being a shade of blue, with plastic rivets in the middle; perhaps they're really saxophone pads, but they play just fine.

The instrument feels a bit "floppy", because the tenon corks are quite loose, and the body lock is missing.

The top part of the whisper key mechanism is clearly not original, and may need modification or replacement to work properly with your desired bocal.

One or two keys have been repaired. There is a tiny bit of damage to one end of the low F key roller, as pictured.

Apart from one or two hairline cracks in the tenon at the top of the long joint, this bassoon is in excellent physical condition. There are quite a few light marks and scratches around the instrument, due to it having lost its original case, but overall, it has clearly been well-cared for. There is next to no wear around the finger holes.

The cork plug at the bottom of the butt joint is quite old, but still seals well.

I don't rightly know what pitch this bassoon was designed to play at; I was able to get my tuner reading at 440, playing low G, and the next two Gs above. While I was using a French-style reed, I was merely playing an unbranded Heckel-system crook, simply marked "2", with a length of 34cm, and a diameter at the large end of 9mm (no crook or bocal is included, sorry).

But my results may have been a combination of wishful thinking, bad playing, and incorrect equipment...!

This bassoon measures 50 3/8" on the bass side, from the bottom of the butt joint to the top of the bell, and 33 7/8" on the tenor side, to the top of the wing joint.

Measurements for a known low pitch Hawkes & Son Excelsior are 50 7/8", and 35" respectively.

However, this bassoon is more of a gentleman's cut, and is laid out differently. The Hawkes has a very deep crook socket, which adds about 1/2" to its appearance, without adding to bore length. While this bassoon's long and wing joints are clearly shorter than the Hawkes', as can be seen from the photos, its bell and butt joints are longer.

And the extra length of the butt joint is worth twice its measurement in internal bore length, because the air goes down, around and up again.

Measurements of each joint on this bassoon, including tenons:--

* Bell: 14 13/16"

* Long: 21 3/4"

* Butt: 17"

* Wing: 18 3/8"

(Photos of the two instruments are for comparison only; the Hawkes is obviously not included in this sale.)

For protection during shipping, the bassoon will be carefully packed in an old saxophone case.

Sent via Australia Post Intl Express, with full tracking.