Customer Reviews

The Bassoon Reed Manual: Lou Skinner's Techniques

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Each of us makes our reeds to our own specifications right down to the colour of the thread. This book details some of Lou Skinner's later techniques for producing remarkable bassoon reeds. While it is targetted at a more advanced bassoonist, hence written by a college professor, it breaks down to the smallest detail the nuance of making a personal reed design that works for each of us.
Skinner, like all good academics, stressed open-mindedness. He encouraged bassoonists to continue experimenting to find the palette of colours most suitable for themselves.
Anyone who can't produce a fine reed from this book should work with Professor McKay to find what crucial element they are misinterpreting.
This is the foremost publication on the subject of reeds to be produced to date.

I waited over a year for the book and it was worth the wait. It is well documented and well worth the cost of the book. It will definitely be a well used and valuable reference in any serious bassoonist library. It may be too advance for a beginning reed maker (Popkin & Glickman, Chris Weait, or Mark Eubanks reed books may be easier for them to follow). Thank you Mr. Skinner for sharing your knowledge.

I bought this book on the recommendation of my repairman, James Keyes.

The contents of this book are interesting, giving some (not much, but some) insight into how a reed actually works. However, a sketchy quality of writing makes it hard to follow with the very few examples provided.

It doesn't end there. The instructions and methods provided to produce the various reed models mentioned in the book are completely useless; every reed I've made following his instructions has failed even if I followed them to the exact letter.

Interesting if you want to see how Louis Skinner worked. But if you want to use the book for practical purposes, don't bother.