Hi I'm new to the forum, not new to the bassoon. For as long as I've been playing bassoon, I should be more knowledgeable about the instrument and reeds, but I'm not. And that's probably the main reason I'm here.

At the moment, I have a Jones reed that gives my bassoon the most beautiful tone that I've ever been able to get out of it. My middle D and Eb are pretty easy to tune. And the reed gives me the greatest range too (i can hit higher notes on a song that i was having trouble with 2 years ago).

The problem is... the reed has a split on both blades near the rail(?) and the split stops about 1cm down the blades. The split section has also bent but not broken off about 2mm from the tip (it looks like a tiny little flap). And to top it off, inside of the reed is moldy (i know... ew, ick, yucky). I don't know how much longer I can play on it.

For the past week or so I've been researching online and tinkering with a couple store-bought medium reeds in the hopes that I can replicate how well this old reed has played. I don't have the greatest of tools though. Right now I have needle-nose pliers to adjust the wires. I have a utility knife, but I'm really hesitant on using it on a reed.

Resources I have come across say that there's a reed file or sandpaper I could use. Not sure which to get, and then there's type of grit for the sandpaper. Also unsure about that as well.

Sorry for being so long-winded. Even though I've done a lot of research on my own, i feel like there's only a portion of the info that I'm actually understanding.

Any insight, links, or resources you could give is greatly appreciated.

Don't you just hate it when you get a great reed (by chance) and then have to worry about when it is going to die on you for the rest of the time you're playing it.

I agree, sometimes you can get a really great reed from Jones. But the thing to do is learn how to fix the reeds you do own now. I'm not in the habit of pushing a particular product, but there is a new DVD out that I have bought and think is going to be worthwhile, which teaches you how to fix reeds and what tools you can use to do it. It is described on this website:
http://www.weaitmusic.com/ - not cheap but probably worth it in the long run.