The bassoon reeds that I sell are identical to those that I used in my twenty-one years as Second Bassoon at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (London).
After they have been ‘blown in’, these free-blowing reeds will produce a thick, warm, full, mellow tone free of ‘reediness’ and with good reliability and stability. They are particularly suitable for playing second bassoon parts.
They are very responsive, especially in the lower register and are particularly stable in pitch with a wide range of dynamics. This is achieved in part by my reeds being wider, both at the throat and the tip, than some other reeds. Although they may not be best suited to playing concertos and extremely high passages, they are for most repertoire, very easy to live with. As such, they are suitable for professional and amateur players and also beginners and students.
All reeds are handmade by myself, finished off, tested and sterilised before being dispatched. After they have been formed into blanks, all my reeds are left to stabilise for as long as possible, usually for as long as eight weeks before being finished off which can itself take a long time since final adjustments are better if done a little at a time. So, if there are no reeds in the ‘pipe-line’, there may be a delay in completing orders. I normally expect to get orders sent off within a couple of weeks.
I’m afraid I’ve decided to increase the cost of these reeds. It’s been over 10 years without a price increase and I have now priced them so that the more you order, the better value you get. I believe these prices still compare very favourably with other reed makers.
My prices are:
2 reeds: £28 incl. postage to the UK or £31 incl. worldwide postage
3 reeds: £40 incl. postage to the UK or £43 incl. worldwide postage
4 reeds: £52 incl. postage to the UK or £55 incl. worldwide postage
5 reeds: £64 incl. postage to the UK or £67 incl worldwide postage
6 reeds: £76 incl. postage to the UK or £79 incl. worldwide postage
10 reeds: £120 incl. postage to the UK or £123 incl. worldwide postage.
To keep costs down, I have decided not to use PayPal any more since the charges they impose are significant.
So to order reeds from me, simply send me an email telling me:
1) Your name.
2) Your postal address and, if you want, your phone number.
3) How many reeds you would like.
4) Anything else you’d care to add. (if you are a new customer it’s useful to know if you’re professional or amateur and what sort of playing you do and what make of bassoon you play on).
I will then post the reeds off to you usually within a week and I’ll enclose an invoice with instructions how to pay by bank transfer or, if you’d prefer, by cheque.
Notice regarding Coronavirus:
During this time of uncertainty, I am continuing to sell reeds and will continue to disinfect them as usual. At the moment, neither I nor anyone in my household is showing any symptoms of Covid-19. If you order any reeds from me at the moment, I shall enclose a note saying when I last handled them and I would recommend that when you receive them you quarantine them for seven days. Meanwhile, if I start to become unwell, I shall get in touch immediately.