French Bassoon, A.D. Royan, Needs Crook, Should Play Well with Minimal Setup

Update: price slashed to reflect the lack of crook; see below for recommendations on suitable crook measurements.

If you're after a French bassoon with a crook, see my other listing for a beautiful Hawkes & Son Excelsior, with its original crook...Here is a low pitch rosewood French system bassoon by A.D. Royan, in very good condition.

The pads look good, and appear to be well seated, despite there being several different styles of pad installed.

All keys move and rebound freely, with keywork feeling generally well-regulated. However, it is strongly recommended that the buyer has this bassoon serviced by a suitably qualified technician, before any serious playing is attempted. For example, some of the long joint keys are a little bit rattly, and the whisper key pad will likely need replacing.

Several keys have been repaired, and while structurally sound, would benefit from some cleanup work, for appearance's sake. The low C key has a depression, which you may wish to have removed.

Several small cracks and chips in the tenons have been repaired. There are no cracks that I could see in the body of the instrument.

I was able sound a convincing low Bb at the time of testing, using the crook from the Hawkes & Son Excelsior I currently have listed. This instrument will need a crook of less than 34cm overall tube length, including the corked portion, and as large an inside diameter as you can find, at the large end.

Although unmarked, this instrument plays at low pitch, matching modern A=440 instruments. The fully assembled bassoon measures 52 1/4" from the bottom of the butt joint to the top of the bell, and 36 3/4" to the top of the wing joint.

This is in fact several inches longer the Hawkes & Son French bassoon I currently have listed, which is clearly marked L.P. The reason is, H&S used a modern metal u-tube, whereas this Royan has the older design of butt joint, with a cork plug at the bottom, so the whole thing needs to be longer to accommodate this.

Note that unlike some French bassoons, there is no key for RH3, just a plain finger hole. But it's not major drama; if you need to go quickly from G to Bb, just lift your middle finger, and close the thumb hole, for a forked Bb.

All four joints are marked "A.D. Royan, 16 & 18 Queen's Road, London, S.W.". The butt joint shows a serial number of 11014.

The top of the bell is missing its ring. On a French bassoon, this would be just a simple metal band.

Note that while the case has a division for each joint, it will need suitable foam blocking installed to hold each piece securely, should you wish to actually use this case for the instrument.

For shipping, all joints will be padded securely inside the case, and the case padded inside the package, so nothing can move around. Check my feedback, and buy with confidence :-)