Doublereed Archive - Posting 000074.txt from 2003/04

From: ContraReed@-----.com
Subj: Re: [DR-L] english horn out of adjustment
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 07:38:18 -0400

In a message dated 4/14/03 12:06:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
dlouhy@-----.com writes:

<< If it's plastic then that kind of rules out the shrunken wood theory... >>

As a side note to this, non-wood bassoons are more prone to keys not working
if the instrument gets cold, especially some of the keys on the long joint
where the rods can be rather long. If, for example, (and I've seen this
happen too often), a player leaves a non-wood bassoon in the car overnight on
a cold night, thinking "it's not wood, it won't hurt it", the next moming
when they try to play it, they find several keys will not work. The
non-wood material has contracted as a result of being so cold, and in the
process, the posts on either end of these long rods are a teeny-tiny bit
closer together, not giving the rod enough room to move freely, so the key is
stuck.