Schreiber 5091 Professional Bassoon Now on Sale

Just added to our web site: Schreiber's professional bassoon, the 5091 (also known as the S91), on sale for a bargain price of £7,450. This bassoon retails new at around £13,000; this example has had 8 months use since sold new, and has been very carefully looked after so it looks like it has come straight from the factory. 

The Schreiber 5091 has a very high specification and sounds impressively rich. This example was one of the last made in the Schreiber factory in Germany before the take-over by Buffet. Buffet have confirmed their support of the the Schreiber bassoon line, and the 5091 is continuing to be made by Buffet as their top professional bassoon.

For more information, please see: http://www.doublereed.co.uk/Bassoon_Schreiber_5091__37881_For_Sale.htm

Can a Dalek play a bassoon?

Here's the answer:

This Dalek is exterminating its enemies with the beautiful sound of a Heckel 4000, now available from our web site entirely unsinged by the experience.

More pictures of the Dalek playing the bassoon over on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.256265007813744.57982.216198785153700&type=3

The Dalek is a real one as far as we can make out; we found it lurking in the stables at Tredegar Park, Newport, in the dark, all alone and abandoned, and covered in dust. Possibly left over from filming Dr Who, some scenes of which were filmed at Tredegar Park.

The Heckel 4000 can be found here: http://www.doublereed.co.uk/Bassoon_Heckel_4000_For_Sale.htm

Heckel 4000 Superbly Restored by Guntram Wolf of Germany

It is rare to have the privilege of offering for sale a bassoon such as this late-series Heckel 4000.

This Heckel is in superb condition, indicating a much-cosseted instrument over its life of 101 years so far. And it has been completely restored by Guntram Wolf, the bassoon maker of Germany, at a cost of €2000. As well as all the work one would expect from a prestige company such as Wolf, they have re-silvered the keys and added a crook/whisper key. We received it straight from Wolf and are now offering it for sale.

This example more than lives up to the reputation of Heckel bassoons: it has an amazing, sweet sound; and it blows very freely throughout the range, making it a really easy instrument to play. It comes with two Heckel crooks, one of which looks as though it is probably original.

The bassoon was made in 1911 and, like other very late 4000 series, has a modern round profile to the long joint, unlike earlier models which had the "flat top" profile seen on 3000 series as well as most of the 4000s.  

Here's a picture of a flat top profile long joint from a Heckel 3000:

 and compare it with the round top from this Heckel:

For more information on this wonderful bassoon, see here: http://www.doublereed.co.uk/Bassoon_Heckel_4000_For_Sale.htm

Launch of The Bassoon Band

We also publicised the launch of The Bassoon Band at the BDRS Convention last Sunday. Although not a Double Reed Ltd venture, Oliver Ludlow is one of the two initiators of The Bassoon Band along with Shaun Roderick, an ex-professional bassoonist, so we thought we'd mention it here.

The Basson Band will meet once a month in South East Wales starting in June 2012 (venue depends on location of participants), and is a bassoons-only ensemble for all levels of bassoonist. The Band has secured the services of a professional conductor, and we aim it to be a fun and interesting get-together for anyone keen to practice their bassoon playing and where we can learn from each other as we play. We have created a web site for The Bassoon Band here: The Bassoon Band

Full contact details are available on the web site, or contact Oliver via our own web site.

If you would like posters to put up, or leaflets to hand out, just let us know, as we have some available.

BDRS Annual Convention 2012

Thanks to everyone who visited our stand last Sunday at the British Double Reed Society Annual Convention 2012. It was a great event for us and we had the pleasure of meeting some old friends and past contacts and plenty of new ones.

As the only secondhand bassoon supplier at the show, we had a lot of interest. A fair number of visitors were coming across us for the first time and didn't know that we specialised in secondhand instruments - and a number of them didn't guess our bassoons were secondhand even on close inspection (all down to the rigorous selection of  the best bassoons and our preparation of them, of course).

Among others, we were pleased to see Clive Fairbairn, Editor of the British Double Reed Society Magazine, who mentioned that one of his pupils had recently bought one of our bassoons and was very happy with it.

Here's a picture of our stand just before the show started.

BDRS Convention 6th May Preview

We're really looking forward to seeing everyone at our stand at the BDRS Convention on Sunday 6th May in Cardiff.

We'll have a really exciting line up of bassoons on show, from a superb, completely restored late 4000 series Heckel made in 1911 through to a mint condition Fox 201D from 2008. This Heckel 4000 is the best we've ever seen, and the Fox has hardly been used.

We also have a range of other bassoons to show, including an Adler, a Schreiber, a Moosmann 222 "Gentleman's" model and a really interesting 60-year-old Buffet French system bassoon which is in superb restored condition with a new Buffet crook.

Come along, have a look and have a try on them...

Improvement to Double Reed's Buy Back Scheme

From 1st May 2012 Double Reed Ltd. has improved and extended its Buy Back Scheme for its student bassoons. The Buy Back Scheme enables  purchasers of our bassoons to get back up to 90% of the price paid if they change their minds about the bassoon bought.

This gives peace of mind to budding bassoonists (or their parents) who may decide that a bassoon isn't quite right for them after a few months of playing.

Previously, 90% back was available for the first month of ownership; this has now been increased to the first three months. And we have also increased the period in which a purchaser can return a bassoon under the Buy Back Scheme from 6 months to 2 years.

Now, if you or your child wishes to move on to another instrument altogether, or upgrade to a better bassoon, you have an easy means of returning your bassoon for a large percentage of the purchase price in the first two years of ownership, helping to take away some of the worry about purchasing a bassoon for the first time.

Our Buy Back Scheme is unique in the industry for secondhand instruments, so now not only can you save money by buying secondhand, you can also have a sure and easy way of selling your bassoon on for a good price when you decide to part with it. 

You can find details of our current bassoons for sale here: www.doublereed.co.uk/Bassoons_for_Sale.htm

And you can find details of our Buy Back Scheme here: www.doublereed.co.uk/Buy_back_scheme.htm