Chartier CPB-MS Plastic Bassoon Reed, Medium-Soft

Plays well

Garbage! Not worth the money! Stick with natural reeds! These do have some advantages, such as better tone on high notes and not having to constantly wet them, but otherwise stay away! Almost impossible to hit the low notes, and this one cracked after one week of use. I went back to natural reeds and will never stray again.

As stated in the item name this reed is plastic. That being said, I still get a fairly good tone from this reed. I'm fairly new to bassoon and I get a similar tone as from my cane reed without having to worry that it's going to break all the time.

I’m quite surprised with the quality of this plastic reed. It’s not a professional grade reed, but I was looking for a free blowing reed that I can use for children to test out my bassoon, while being able to sanitize the reed in between use. (I’ll be involved in an “instrument petting zoo” soon) The resistance is a little more than the medium soft strength that I ordered, but I’m thinking that I can simply adjust it by closing up the reed a bit with the first wire. The opening of the butt of the reed is a little narrow for my Fox Reynard bocal, so I attempted to ream it a bit. It now fits sufficiently on the bocal. As far as intonation goes, the 3rd space E sinks in pitch, but will suffice for what I’m using it for. All in all, I’m very pleased with my purchase and it’s just what I was looking for.

My son really likes this reed and I was happy not to have to spend a fortune for a plastic reed.

Good for practice only

great

I figured I would give this reed a shot. For a young bassoonist in my ensemble who needs a consistent, stable solution, this is great. It is surprisingly free-blowing and not too stiff. Certainly not for professional applications, but better than expected for beginners.