I have used this on about 10 of my reeds so far this year and all of them have a wobbly middle F. It gives me a fast response and dark tone. I’ve been putting a very thin tip on this and leaving a moderate amount of spine. The Heckel shape is a goblet/tulip shape like the K2 but much narrower.

I traced the following shapers onto a piece of paper so that you can get a sense of what a reed with these shapes might look like. It has a sweeter tone than the K1 and be easier to blend with a section. This had the effect on me like trying a Herzberg reed for the first time, with a narrow shape the scrape can be thinner and more free blowing without sagging or loss of the high register response. K3 has some interesting qualities because it is pretty narrow and has a shallow curve from the tip to the throat.

I’ve tried to change wire placement, gouge, and reed lengths and I continue to not like this. always been a buzzy mess for my on my instrument. If it’s your thing I can make that shape for you, but this has. K2 is a shape that I basically never use or recommend. I’d say that it sounds a little plain and can be buzzy in the first few days. I have used this on Fox contras, Mollenhauers and Heckels and I think it makes a balanced middle of the road reed. But if I can ramble a bit, I’ve spent time with these shapes and made each of them my primary shape at one point in time so there are patterns I have noticed. It’s hard to describe each shape and dissect the playing qualities since so much of what makes a good reed has to do with cane and the scrape. Rieger K1, K2, K3, Heckel, Skinner-Braunstein, Greg Henegar, Rhodes R1 The shapes available for contrabassoon reeds are: I play a mid 1980’s Heckel contra and I have been finding that this shape suits the instrument. I personally use a Heckel Contrabassoon shape, which was found and reproduced in a small batch by Arlen Fast through Fox Products. The standard shape for all of the contrabassoon reeds is the Rieger K1, this is a versatile shape that is free blowing on most instruments. I am now offering custom contrabassoon reeds on my reed website for people who have a preference of shapes.

Heckel bassoon serial numbers