Hello fellow bassoonists :P

Do any of you play on bassoons with lined holes in the wing joint to prevent water leaking out? Are they effective?
Mine doesnt have lined holes in the wing joint and leaks like mad after an hour playing and i'm forever wiping the water off it....am thinking of getting the hole 'bushed' to prevent this.
Any comments gratefully received.
Cheers
Andy

It all depends whether the lining protrudes into the bore or not.

Before going to all that expense - are the tone holes clean? Muck around & in the holes can cause this problem. Also a very light coating of bore oil in the holes can help.

I've also heard that some people let a drop of detergent run down the bore to establish a path for the "condensation" to run avoiding the tone holes by tilting the instrument while the drop goes down, never tried this myself though.

I sometimes get liquid in these holes although they are lined, I guess mine don't really protrude into the bore.
I did some reading online on this topic.. one advice was "just think your mouth to be dry and it will be".

The power of the mind, eh?

Cheers
James

I think the lined holes are the best thing since sliced bread. My old bassoon used to drench my first finger right hand regularly. I tried everything but mainly used to tilt it when not playing so that the "holes" side was up. This helped somewhat. One other suggestion: take your bocal off whenever you can and blow it out - maybe some of the moisture will get out that way before it gets down into the wing joint. If the lining doesn't protrude into the bore, however, you won't get any benefit, as one poster said, so if you're going to try that, make sure you get that protrusion.

The real advantage of lined fingerholes is to prevent wood rot between the wing joint liner and the wood.This can happen in unlined instruments with dire results.If you do have liners fitted have them extending into the bore,as has already been said it'll help stop water getting down finger holes.It will be an expensive job and has to be done by an expert repairer.
One tip; after playing never leave the bassoon lying flat as this will allow moisture to drain into all the tone-holes,stand it up in a corner to drain the water into the U bend.Better still take it apart and clean it out even if your only having a few minutes break.