How to Really Test a Bocal

• Blind tests with another bassoonist playing.
• In the hall evaluation.
• On your instrument… I play it; you play it.
• In the microphone evaluation.
• Actual performance evaluation how it feels.
• Colleagues “opinion.”
• On trial new and used.
• New bassoons: a bocal return policy?

U-Tubes and Tuning

• Leaks are GREEN!
• Seldom visited tuning point
• Gasket thickness modifications
• Bracket sealing leak problem
• Swap or replacement
• Modifications
• New designs & materials
• Shallow or deep?
• Drain

 

 

What are the simplest repairs and adjustments you can do yourself?

• Whisper key pad replacement.
• Low E bridge key adjustment.
• Lubricate pivots (to eliminate noise) and rods.
• Check for leaks: pressure tests/water tests.
• Maintenance: clean the bassoon of debris!
• Clean the tone holes:
  • Swab with wet Q-Tips.
  • Scrub with cleaning brush.
• Clean and recondition the pads.
• Regulate pad height (shims or sandpaper).
• Tuning and voicing?

Pressure Testing

– A great investment: the Mag Machine.

– Indoor (poster) mounting tape.

– Water bath bubble test.

– The old method: smoke.

 

 

 

 

What is Tuning and Voicing?
Pitch Centered at Equal Tempered

• Goals:
  • Pitch centers at equal temperament.
  • Achieve linear balance of pitch, resonance, and tone color.
  • Balanced resonance and tone color across octaves.
  • Quick response.
• Bottom up approach.
• All leaks have been eliminated?
• Tuned at the factory: +/-  2 cents?
• Methods
  • Pad height adjustments or tone holes adjustments?
  • Tuning tape… Friend or foe?
  • Undercutting tone holes.
  • Tone color adjustments with tone hole flaring.
• Resonance reservoir tuning (Alan Fox).
• Bore adjustments and u-tube/gasket adjustments.

Tuning & Voicing Tools

Riffler files

Reamers and drills

Undercutting tools

 

 

Tuning Points?

• Bell bore diameter problem
• Bell tenon gap
• Long joint tenon gap problem
• Wing joint tenon gap
• U-tube design (shallow/deep)
• U-tube material*
• Gasket thickness and choke
• Bocal gap (good or bad?)

 

Sneaky Leaks that NEED Tiny Tweaks

General

• Dry rot! C# trill, Ab tone area, bottom of boot bore unlined
• Uneven or rounded pad seat/crown
• Posts
• Pad seat cuts into wood
• Porous wood
• Screw holes
• Wood insert cuts for D and G ring keys
• Wood cracks anywhere
• Wood tone holes
• Metal bands
• Long joint screws that penetrate into the bore
• Inexpensive/old bassoon partial metal tone hole inserts D and B ring keys

Bocal

• Cracked bocal seam

Wing

• C# tone hole through wood to cut
• C# under liner to tenon end
• Liner separation and leaks to and from vents and tone holes

Boot

• Action rod holes
• U-tube bracket over wood
• U-tube gasket crack
• “Across the bore” A and Bb tone holes
• Wing tenon well to C# trill
• Wood cracks around wing and bass well
• Under and around metal band and neckstrap connection
• Sloppy rods (loose keywork)

Solutions and Products

• Soak in linseed oil?
• Underwater bubble test
• Door-Ease stick lubricant (wax)
• PC Petrifier wood hardener
• Shellac
• Super Glue

Choke Points and Rods

 

 

Biofeedback for Blowing

 

 

Developments in the 20th and 21st Centuries

• Heckel #4360
• Heckel “World” Bassoon
• Pezzi Model
• Frederick Moritz Model
• Cucuriano System
• Weisberg Flickless
• Wolf’s new directions

 

From the Metropolitan Museum collection: Heckel #7372 “The OMG Model”

The Bassoforte?

The Ideal Bassoon

• Does not leak
• Tuned and voiced
• Fits the player’s hand!
• Easy to play (too easy?)
• Projects well
• Is flexible, not stiff
• Tone color pleases you
• Blends with bassoon section
• Best instrument for 1st or 2nd bassoon
• Doesn’t take 25 years to break in
• Sounds good on recordings
• Stays in adjustment

Embouchures

• “Lost” Jaw (circle)
• Overbite — open jaw
  • Lower lip back
• Flat-neutral– slightly closed jaw
  • Smile (corners up)
  • Grimace (corners flat)
  • Frown (corners down)
• Overbite — slightly closed jaw
• Under-bite (upside-down)
• Fixed
• Semi-fixed
• Flexible
• Fish lips (rolled out)

 

8 B’s for 3 ppp’s

by Mark Eubanks

Can you “sing” softly, playing a controlled pianissimo with good pitch and resonance in the tone? This is one of the greatest challenges in bassoon playing.

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