Our Instruments
Bell Bassoons are distinguished by their unique characteristics, offering musicians unparalleled ease of play. With over 40 years of performance experience, Benson Bell has captured in his design a combination of innovation and tradition. This, alongside meticulous craftsmanship, makes Bell Bassoons a favourite among musicians who seek both comfort and expressive capability in their performance.
Notable Features
The leaf of the Sugar Maple is Canada’s national emblem, so as a Canadian company, we’re proud that maple is the most suitable and traditional wood used in the construction of bassoons. We select the most visually striking pieces available to us and celebrate the unique features that are revealed as each instrument takes shape. With well seasoned, highly figured maple as our foundation, we build a thick-walled bassoon tuned and voiced to play with exceptional comfort at modern orchestral pitch.
The wing joint and small bore of the boot joint are fitted with German-made hard rubber liners. The woodside bore is lacquered and polished to a fine finish, providing stability and resonance.
An additional hard rubber liner is inserted into the lower 45mm of the boot joint’s large bore, extending from the bottom bracket to just above the A tone hole. This feature safeguards against wood-rot and comes standard on all Bell bassoons.
All keywork is cast in traditional red brass, assembled and adjusted by hand, then finished with a heavy silver plate for corrosion resistance and classic beauty.
We’ve created the industry’s first and only solid cast U-tube. This feature, unique to Bell bassoons, allows us to achieve maximal alignment with the boot joint bores as well as insuring that gasket material will never protrude into the air column or compress over time.
The bell and long joints are equally divided for ease of transportation.
For further inquiries about our features or processes, please don’t hesitate to reach out using our contact form