Doublereed Archive - Posting 000015.txt from 2003/02

From: William Safford <williamsafford@-----.com>
Subj: [DR-L] unknown bassoon--Jacquais Dumain?
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 23:37:17 -0500

I was asked to evaluate a bassoon at a local college. I was surprised that
I had never even heard of the maker before. Maybe someone here knows
something about it? I just Googled it, but came up empty.

It's a Jacquais Dumain bassoon. It's German system, but old. It has no
rollers at all, no high D key, no F# trill key, no whisper key. Its serial
number is in the 900 range. It is also stamped "Czechoslovakia."

I was surprised--it didn't suck. It had a pleasant tone, plays in tune, and
has an even scale. N.B. That was with my modern Heckel CC-1 bocal; there
was, strangely enough, a no-name contrabassoon bocal (split) in the case,
but not a bassoon bocal.

It needs a fair amount of work, but I was surprised that it was as decent
an instrument as it is. Its corks were in surprisingly good shape, and it
wasn't too leaky. The wood is far from pristine, naturally, but is far less
rough than a 5000 series Heckel I tried last month. OTOH, the keys are all
tarnished and encrusted, and it has that nasty odor that old woodwind
instruments get when stored for years without attention.

The good news for the college is that, with a replacement bocal and some
TLC, some non-major could make music on it. It's no Renard, but it's no
Linton either.

Anyone know more about it?

TIA.