Yearly Bassoon Overhaul on Video

Some years ago I wrote up my yearly overhaul/maintenance procedures and in starting to stream this past year, I decided to stream and record this year's overhaul to show the process in action and mention some of the quirks you run into along the way. The method is effectively the same as described in the original page, here.

The stream was divided into two parts, since the work spans two days to allow for the bore oil to soak in, the first stream begins with the complete instrument and takes everything off to clean it. Some key polishing and cleaning was removed after demonstrating it as there was another two hours or so of just cleaning, which I didn't think was worth streaming after showing initially. I resume the next day and begin reassembly, attending to some little issues uncovered along the way and end with a playing instrument with significantly quieter keywork. I mention replacing the bocal cork in the video, and while that was done, it was done the next day - the somewhat dried out contact cement I was using I deemed insufficient for the more important glue joint holding on the bocal cork, so I did it later off camera.

 

Part 1: Disassembly and Cleaning

 

Part 2: Greasing and Reassembly

I hope that demonstrating the process on camera is valuable to anyone working on their own instrument, while it is a substantial amount of work on an expensive piece of equipment, the steps individually are manageable and the understanding you gain in doing the work is worth even more than the savings of not having to send the instrument away on a regular basis.

 

 

January 13, 2021

 

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