Has anyone played the Kessler Custom Bassoons? What's the feedback?
http://www.kesslermusic.com/KesslerCustomSax/bassoon/bassoon.html

are you debating weather to buy one? Don't. Personally, I have never played on one, but it looks like a risky advertisement. Either the bassoon is plastic (BLECK) or really bad wood (EQUALLY BLECK) as you can tell by the pictures. Stick with Fox or vintage Schreibers (new schrieber models suck compared to the older models)

Cool. Thanks. Exactly what I was thinking.

I find it very risky to be suggesting brands for people to be spending thousands of dollars on. I don't mind, however, saying that a fairly unknown brand might be hard to get service on, whatever its characteristics. To expand on previous posters' suggestions, in addition to Fox and Schreiber there are many good, well-known reliable bassoon brands and you should try as many as you can before making a decision. Research Moosmann, Adler, Howarth (depending on your location), and the more expensive Puchners, plus some I've probably forgotten, before deciding. In addition, you might find a good Kohlert (not now in production but reliable in the earlier years) or an Amati or Polisi. The message here is that even among the same brand, the hand-work nature of bassoon-making means they won't all play the same.

I might also add that one very popular line of Foxes is plastic, so one shouldn't get turned off by this.

true,true, although most plastic bassoons tend to be sucky. However, I do admit, there are a select few plastic models that kick butt.

Yes, I have played on plastic Foxes and must say they play suprisingly well.

On the Kessler web site it does say it is made of ABS - a type of plastic. As others have said plastic is not necessarily a bad thing especially with Fox as they make their polypropylene models with the same care that they make the wooden ones.

I would think that Kessler source these from the far east. Many stores & importers buy off the shelf in small batches & get them stamped with their name. All bassoons I've seen from this area of the world (apart from Yamaha & maybe Takeda) are of mediocre to dire quality - made from substandard materials & with bad manufacture quality. One of these days I hope to see a usable one from this area of the world. Maybe the Kessler is the one but....