OK I'm in my 2nd year in high school and Im thinking of buying a good bassoon instead of the schools crummy plastic one. I've been playing for 2 years and I wonder what make/model of a basson would be good for me? I'm looking for something between $3000-8000.

Posters are not ignoring your request, but I hope you do realize that as many brands as there are out there, that is how many suggestions you will get saying "get this brand." Most everyone who has made a big investment in a bassoon is determined to push his type of instrument, for better or worse. Having said that, however, this subject has been discussed at length on several previous topics in this forum, and people have given their opinions on many bassoons, both used and new. Maybe do a little research looking at all the different topics and you will get lots of good ideas. Takes time, I know, but you can use the search feature at the top of this page and try to narrow things down.

As said before, I am going to have bias, but my was in the same situation last year. My teacher recomended a Fox Renard 220 or 222 as a good intermediate model. I got the 220, and am very pleased. Obviosly there are many brands to choose from, however fox seems to be pretty consistant. Whatever you choose upon, make sure you talk to a bassoonist and get advice on different models and the options on it.

To a great extent it's a case of going for the one you like the sound of & which feels comfortable in your hands.

As to which make. Heckel & Puchner are two of the best but will be out of your price range, even used, as they only do pro models. There are a number of other smaller makers also with astronomic price tags.

Of the others Fox, Moosmann, Adler & Monnig do a variety of models & sound is good - their build quality is very good & customer service excellent (ie they will talk to their users & replacement parts are avilable).
Then you get to Schreiber - personally I find them uninteresting & the customer service (maybe because for many years they have been part of larger groups of companies) is appalling & trying to get parts out of them is nearly impossible.

Linton - not the best student bassoon, although you can get parts.

Amati even though they have improved in recent years the quality of wood & metal used isn't very good leading to problems not very far down the line.

Then you get to the Chinese - as Amati but even more so. If you see a new instrument that is dirt cheap from a 'maker' (more likely an distributer or store) you might never have heard or is totally anonymous that will be the most likely source - & not worth taking out of the store.

This is from 25 years experience of playing bassoons & 17 years of repairing them.

You might get more bang for you bucks by buying used than going for new but that route can be fraught with problems especially buying privately & from E-bay. Sellers tend to be rather optimistic in their descriptions!