I finally got my Bassoon, YAY, and from the topic you can tell its a Huller. Does anybody know about this model. I also have a Huller bocal, size 1 and I bought a Jones reed, Medium Soft. So I totally love the bassoon but now my lips hurt so I`m taking a short break. Anyone have any feedback or reviews for the Huller I have.

From what I remember, Hullers are so-so with a few various advantages and disadvantages (lol don ask what there`re so many). What price did you pay to own it? This instrument should last through high-school, at the least. By the end you should be considering upgrading.

The bocal should be perfectly fine, although I prefer size 2. Getting a Heckle or Fox Bocal would be a wise option in about 2 years, if you don;t already have one.

About the Jones Reed, for future refernce:

Look at the opening of the reed. Make sure they are rather tight but not too tight or weak.

Look at the shape (this is important) of the opening. If it is a basic lozenge shape then it will play poorly. It should tighten together around the size to make it look like a side view of a galaxy. (sorry about my freaky analogies lol)

Also, check the wire keeping it together. This is less common with Jones reeds.

DISADVANTAGES: The shape!!! Make sure the reeds, next time you buy, have the side-view-of-galaxy-ish shape, not a basic ovalic lozenge shape. Otherwise they seem to be good reeds.

Note, if I`m wrong about anything, ppl, correct me! This is a quick post.


Good luck, you`ll have fun!!!

It came with 2 bocals one was a size 2 but it was broken and it was a school instrument. I was actually waiting for it to get repaired, I`ve gotten past 50 exercises in my bassoon student book and I can`t wait to go through more. I have a little trouble hitting the staff G instantatiosly. Is the whisper lock the thing that gets me to not play some of the thumb keys so I don`t have to worry about it. I love the bassoon already, I`m having some trouble with base clef, but its beginning to come to me.

I`m hoping you got your bassoon at a good price! But hullers are decent.

About the whisper key lock:

A)It`s apparently a good thing if your bassoon has one.
B)It does not allow disuse of thumb keys. However, engaging it allows you to not press the whisper key. I have no idea when a player would use it.

Also, you should look into getting some bassoon CDs made by the best players. It really helps you to aim at what your tone should be like.

You would use a Whisper key lock when you are playing a lot of notes using the bass joint keys. It especially handy if you are playing a lot of those really low notes fast and have a leap to another note that doesnt use the pancake but requires the whisper key.

(I hope that makes sense...)

Sometimes some notes, like low C, are hard to play pushing all those thumb keys down. If the piece is slow enough, you can use your lock to keep the whisper key down just for the notes you need. Some pieces - a seasonal one right now, Little Drummer Boy - has nearly everything in the range where you can just put the lock on at the beginning of the piece and not worry until the last 5 or 6 measures where it gets up out of that range.

Oh, I`m really lazy so I left on so I don`t have to play basic simple notes. I guess I`m going to "unlock" it now seeing that it would make me a better player ONLY if I need it in these low fast passages you speak of. Though after I`ve been practicing for a long time I begin to sound all watery and gross, then when I take out the boot joint and turn it upside down to remove the spit I sound a lot better. Is there a faster way to fix this rather then taking it apart. OH and I haven`t found much information about the quality of Huller.

A) Do NOT hold down the whisper key unless the passage you are playing uses ONLY notes with either the whisper key or the pancake key. OTherwise notes such as middle A, Bflat, B will not come out properly.

B) You will not find much resources ont he quality of any bassoon except for Heckle and fox, as they are deemed the best, and they are well known

Ok, a beginner is bound to crack his first reed pretty quickly (thats what I did). I have this half an inch crack in the middle of my reed but when I play it sounds fine, with the exception of some unwanted airyness. How long will this half-life reed last because I know I`m ready to bring the bassoon into class but I`m waiting on a wwbw.com order for more reeds. Will this make class playing putrid and horrible or just a minor setback.

Hard to say, the reed could go either way. Welcome to the world of reeds. You should always have several that are good and strive to rotate them.

Just to show you how fickle reeds are, I`ll tell you a story on myself: way back when I was in high school and practicing for solo contest, my one reed was awful and hard. I didn`t know anything about fixing reeds, and kept trying to play on it. Needless to say my solo sounded terrible in practice and I got a good tongue-lashing from my director, who figured I just hadn`t practiced. Afterwards I was so upset I vented my anger by biting down hard on the reed, which cracked it from top to bottom. I was horrified but since I had no money for another reed I had to play on this - and guess what? The reed performed beautifully with this crack in it; it was easy to play, and I eventually got a first on my solo. So you never can tell about reeds. ( I have to add that after getting my first I spoiled everything by saying "Nyah, nyah" to my director, and got another tongue-lashing!)

The reed that I cracked doesn`t sound that bad but its just a bit airy and I have to fight for upper register notes. I having nothing else to blame but my reed, since I don`t know very much about bassoon keys. I just learned base clef and now I hear about tenor clef. Do I have to learn this. Btw I`m loving bassoon

You SHOULD NOT need to know that if you are sticking to school and band cirricula.

You DO need to know that if you are going to play anything else, as tenor clef is quite common. The best way to get over it is read it nonstop.

In band it is uncommon to see tenor, but u might every once in a while or if your dong something outside of the usually band stuff like region band auditions and stuff like that. It's hard to get used to-i'm recently having to learn it.

I have a Huller and they're nice bassoons. I'll be selling it in the new yearif anyone's interested. Micheal does yours have a body lock,they tended to come without them.If it hasn't it's worth getting one fitted.
Huller stopped production in about 1992 after the Berlin wall came down.There's a full history on the following link.If you can get it to work it starts on page 11:
https://www.idrs.org/www.idrs/publications2/journal2/jnl22.2/jnl22.2.pdf