I`m playing on a 442 fox bassoon... any tips on bringing the pitch down?

    
I`m playing on a 442 fox bassoon... any tips on bringing the pitch down?    16:19 on Saturday, January 16, 2010          

Micus
(1 point)
Posted by Micus

I know every bassoonist has problems with going sharp due to tension and poor reeds... but I am playing on a fox 660 model which is tuned to 442. I am often very sharp when playing along with other people and I'm kind of going crazy trying to bring the pitch down with reeds and moving a bocal allll the way out. On the fox website it says:

Thick wall models (601 and 660) are normally tuned with a 3 CVC or CTC . When trying Fox bocals, it is best to start with a No. 2. Changing bocal lengths is wise when small adjustments are desired for the sake of comfortably blending with other instruments. Changing bocal lengths will not help much when trying to change the pitch from A-442 to A-440. This will require changing reed designs, changing bocal bores, or changing instruments.

What changes to bocal bores are they talking about? How could I go about obtaining one of these bores?


Re: I`m playing on a 442 fox bassoon... any tips on bringing the pitch down?    21:33 on Saturday, January 16, 2010          

Drew
(371 points)
Posted by Drew

It's not the end of the world if you leave 1/8th of an inch when putting either or both the long joint and the wing joint into the butt. This will elongate the horn and perhaps give you that bit of flattening that you need. Some actually feel it gives a little bit more resonance but I don't know.......Try it before you spend a lot of money on some other solution.


   




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