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The Complete Handbook of Bassoon Care & Cleaning
For woodwind technicians, educators, repair shops, and serious players who want the practical, no-nonsense details on protecting a major investment in wood and metal.
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: Understanding Bassoon Care & Cleaning
Bassoon care and cleaning is not a single task or a single product. It is a set of routines and materials that address the specific physical vulnerabilities of the instrument. The bassoon is unusual among woodwinds because of its geometry. It is essentially a long, conical tube folded back on itself into three main sections: the boot joint at the bottom, the wing (or tenor) joint on top of the boot on one side, and the long (or bass) joint on the other. The bocal, a tapered metal tube, connects the reed to the wing joint. The result is an instrument with roughly 2.5 meters of bore length compressed into a body that sits about 135 centimeters tall. That bore is narrow, especially at the top end, and it collects moisture, debris, and temperature fluctuations in ways that a flute or a saxophone simply do not.
Understanding what care and cleaning actually does starts with moisture. When you play, warm, humid air from your breath passes through the reed, into the bocal, and down through the bore. The inside of the bassoon is in contact with this air stream for the entire playing session. As the air cools inside the instrument, water condenses out, collecting on the walls of the bore and in the tone holes. In practical terms, this means that after fifteen minutes of playing, there is a measurable amount of liquid water inside your bassoon. On a wooden instrument, that