Bassoon drop
Hi everyone, I’d like some opinions from people experienced with bassoon repairs.
My Yamaha 812 bassoon recently fell over. After inspecting it, I found several issues:
A small chip on the wood at the long joint/bell tenon area
The pancake key guard got bent, causing the low E key alignment to shift
The whisper key system was affected, and one of the whisper key posts is now slightly lifted/separating from the wood
I already contacted a local repair tech. Their opinion was roughly:
The chipped wood could either be glued back (if the piece is still available) or rebuilt, but they personally would NOT do a major rebuild because:
the damaged area is relatively small
it’s not a major load-bearing section like the boot joint or wing joint
the joint still functions normally even without repair
doing a large reconstruction could risk altering the original wood/geometry unnecessarily
The bent pancake key guard can be straightened and adjusted.
The whisper key mechanism/post can be reset and regulated.
The tech also said that if it were their own instrument, they might even leave the chipped wood alone and simply monitor it, unless cracking develops later.
Right now I’m mainly worried about:
Long-term structural issues
Whether the chip could eventually turn into a crack
Whether the lifted whisper key post could cause future problems in the wood
Risks of having the mechanism adjusted by a non-specialist bassoon repairer
Whether a temporary conservative repair is safer than invasive reconstruction
From visual inspection, there does NOT appear to be a large crack following the grain yet, but I know bassoon cracks can be subtle.
For experienced bassoonists/repair techs:
Would you leave the chipped area alone?
Would you glue/rebuild it proactively?
How concerning is the lifted whisper key post?
Is conservative repair usually the better choice in situations like this?
Thanks — I’m pretty anxious about causing long-term damage to the instrument.