Hello and welcome to the official Double Reed Ltd. bassoon
blog. The aim of this blog is to share my thoughts on a number of bassoon
related topics. Hopefully these will be of use to those of you interested in
bassoon playing! Your feedback and comments are welcome.
As a director of Double Reed Ltd., I get the opportunity to
regularly try out different bassoons by different makers, and I will partly use
this blog to give feedback on the particular bassoons I try. We currently have
a 2008 Fox 201D professional bassoon, which I am looking forward to unleashing
at an orchestra rehearsal soon.
My own bassoon is a pre-war instrument made by Ernst Karl
Riedl (1896-1967). Riedl was trained as a bassoon maker at the Kohlert factory
in Graslitz, but he set up his own manufacturing business in 1924. He ran a
small workshop, making only one or two top quality bassoons a month. By doing
this he was able to make bassoons to the highest standard without going into
competition with Kohlert, who were making bassoons on a larger scale. Under the
Riedl name he produced bassoons between 1930 and 1945.
I use a post-war Heckel CC2 crook, which has been cut short
at the large and lengthened at the reed end. This is peculiar! But it seems to
like my bassoon. The key-work is original and quite basic by modern standards
(no high D key etc), so it takes a bit more effort to play, but it has a
beautiful sound and I think well worth the effort. It plays well in tune, has
excellent projection for a pre-war bassoon, and most of all has a richness of
sound that rivals the finest pre-war Heckels.
If you own a pre-war Ernst Riedl bassoon, or have some
information about pre-war Riedl bassoons that I have missed, or have a
question, then please feel free to comment!
You can see a picture of my pre-war Riedl bassoon here:
