Please note the new price increase – details below.
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.
Not having had a price increase for over 3 years I now find that I have to increase my prices to keep up with inflation. I believe they are still very good value for money and compare favourably with other hand-made reeds.
My prices now are:
2 reeds: £36 incl. postage to the UK or £39 incl. worldwide postage
3 reeds: £51 incl. postage to the UK or £54 incl. worldwide postage
4 reeds: £66 incl. postage to the UK or £69 incl. worldwide postage
5 reeds: £81 incl. postage to the UK or £84 incl worldwide postage
6 reeds: £96 incl. postage to the UK or £99 incl. worldwide postage
10 reeds: £156 incl postage to the UK or £159 incl worldwide postage
To keep costs down, I do not 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.
Covid:
If I think I might have Covid, I obviously will not be making or finishing off any reeds. Also if I show any symptoms after I’ve sent off any reeds I shall let you know immediately. It might be a good idea in any case to quarantine any new reeds for a few days just to be sure.