Modern bassoons but also historical oboes, clarinets, classical and baroque bassoons and their predecessors.
The modern bassoons are made in several sizes:
The standard bassoons S 2000 and S 2000 Plus.
A fagottino in various configurations; a quart bassoon, a quint bassoon and even an octave bassoon.
The Contraforte is a completely new invention at the same pitch as the contrabassoon. However, the Contraforte can play from a whisper to a roar and its range easily runs an octave above the contrabassoon. This is a very special project that can be regarded as a great success. This Contraforte is developped by Wolf in combination with Benedikt Eppelsheim.
- Guntram Wolf, from Kronach, manufactures a wide range of woodwind instruments. Modern bassoons but also historical oboes, clarinets, classical and baroque bassoons and their predecessors. The modern bassoons are made in several sizes: The standard bassoons S 2000 and S 2000 Plus. A fagottino in various configurations; a quart bassoon, a quint bassoon and even an octave bassoon.
- Guntram Wolf Basson S 2000 Plus. Bassoon From long-seasoned sycamore maple from slow growing locations. The S 2000 plus models use only specially selected woods.
- The Guntram Wolf company boasts a unique take on bassoon manufacturing. They employ modern techniques in their design process to improve both quality and consistency in their instruments. Additionally, the company loves innovation and has utilized newer materials to improve the playing experience of their bassoons.
Quint Bassoon Tuning: G, Quint bassoon with standard key system, The quint bassoon sounds one fifth higher than a conventional bassoon, It is especially suitable as a children's instrument, With piano pusher and F- F# connection, Sycamore maple.
After the death of Guntram his son Peter is now in charge. Improving even more their instruments.
The bass oboe the Lupophone and the new Bassoforte, a bassoon in the with a low A in the same techniques as the Contraforte.
Fagottino
Wolf has great experience in manufacturing fagottinos, having started doing so in the 1980s. Nowadays, there is a fagottino for children that can also be supplied for adults looking for a special sound to play high solos, for instance in a wind ensemble. The small bassoons are also made of maple, with a hard rubber lining like the standard bassoons. The Wolf fagottino can be played with ordinary bassoon reeds and plays easily across the entire register with stable intonation (Fg 4 and Fg 5). Read more about this in “Bassoons for Children“
Bassoon S 2000 / S 2000 plus
Guntram Wolf Bassoon S 2000 Plus Parts
These bassoons are of professional quality and play clearly and evenly across the entire range. The maple wood used by Wolf to manufacture them has been matured for many years. Also wood turning and processing is done by computer-controlled machinery (CNC), which allows all of the dimensions to be achieved with great accuracy. The silver-plated keys have 7 rollers. The open finger holes are lined with hard rubber tubes that protrude slightly into the bore to prevent water ingress. The outer surface is beautifully lacquered in a matt synthetic finish. The S 2000 Plus is the same in principle as the S 2000, but using specially selected wood.
- beautifully flamed maple (S 2000 Plus)
- birds-eye maple for the S 2000 Plus V
- also available in yew (S 2000 Plus E)
- a high e key is standard
- other keys are available as options
The different types of timber give each instrument its own unique sound. Resonance is further improved by impregnation of the wood. All the keys without long rods are fitted with a by Wolf patented system to ensure that there will be no rattling noise, even if a key goes out of alignment!
Contraforte
This is an entirely novel development of a type of contrabassoon, born from a collaboration with Benedikt Eppelsheim and from Munich, Germany.
This is the contrabassoon that many players have dreamed about: a contra on which you can play more than four octaves using the same fingerings, which is rock solid and plays really easily across its entire register. The warm, full sound blends perfectly with other bassoons and other wind instruments (comparative research was undertaken by the Technical University of Dresden). The Wolf patent for silent keywork has also been applied to this instrument, which is also constructed entirely of wood. The Contraforte is played with extra-wide reeds, but can also be played with a “standard” contrabassoon reed, using an adapter on the bocal.
Contact: FagotAtelier Maarten Vonk
Guntram Wolf Holzblasinstrumente GmbH
Im Ziegelwinkel 13
96317 Kronach
Deutschland
Tel.: +49 9261 506 790
Fax: +49 9261 527 82
email: info@guntramwolf.de
http://www.guntramwolf.de
One day, more than 25 years ago, I was standing in a museum with an 18th century fagottino in my hands. A young girl passed by and said to her mother ‘Mum, look at that! Isn’t it cute! Isn’t it pretty! I want to play one like that!’ I thought ‘What a great idea!’
I made the first modern fagottino for children that same year.
Bassoon players and teachers thought it was ridiculous, but I told them ‘Just you wait and see!’
Nowadays there’s no need to convince anyone any more. We turn out large numbers of fagottini and sell them throughout the world.
We used to make standard bassoons with their mechanisms adapted for children but, as I’ll explain, we moved away from that notion for a number of reasons.
Guntram Wolf Bassoon S 2000 Plus Size
However, we had a few questions to answer before deciding to start making instruments especially for children.
The first thing to think about is whether children should really be starting to play the bassoon so young. We can learn something about this from biology, which tells us that whatever you learn in your formative years, before your tenth birthday, is imprinted in your brain and never forgotten. Before deciding to support music lessons at such a tender age by producing the instruments for the job, you need to investigate – without any preconceptions – whether this could in any way be harmful to a child’s physical health. This topic has been debated at length at a number of medical symposia. They debated all sorts of things that might be harmful to children, such as the pressure generated when blowing, dental development and so on. The result was that they could not find any insuperable problems. But on the other hand you have to reckon with the considerable weight of the standard bassoon. This weight imposes a burden on bone development among growing children, and can have serious consequences in later life. Also, it was felt that excessive spreading of the fingers and bad posture had to be avoided. One could deal with these potential downsides by building a small bassoon.
There’s actually a significant argument in favour of introducing children to the bassoon and the oboe.
From my own experience – I played bassoon and oboe when I was at school – I know that a large part of the repertoire of all sizes of amateur orchestras is drawn from 18th century composers. And this is exactly the type of music that consistently uses bassoons and oboes! These groups generally can’t afford to hire in professional guest players, which is why there’s such a great need for amateur bassoonists and oboists. So it’s really important that children should get a chance to learn and play the oboe and bassoon, even in primary school.
In the past, the biggest problem was that no suitable instruments were available for children of this age.
Now we can get back to the starting point for this article – to that little epiphany in the 1980s. Our first children’s bassoons found their way into schools and music schools and were very well received. Their growing success encouraged us to extend our range of children’s instruments with oboes and clarinets. As far as the bassoon is concerned, we eventually came up with three formats, in a range of configurations: model Fg 4, model Fg 5 and model Fg 8.
Children can play all three formats using normal bassoon reeds. The fingerings on the quart and quint bassoon are the same or for a normal bassoon. For our octave bassoon, in the simplest of configurations (model Fg 8), the fingerings are more like those of a historical bassoon.
Small bassoons were quite common in the 18th century. They served well as alto and tenor instruments, and nowadays they’re back in use in the same functions. They sound extraordinarily good as double-reed alto or tenor voices in ensemble music.
The attack and tuning on children’s instruments have to be as good as they can be, because children can’t cope with faults and weaknesses in instruments as well as a professional can. We offer all of our fagottini in a standard and a plus configuration. The difference is that the Plus models of the quart and quint bassoons have a complete whisper key mechanism, whereas the Standard models have a dummy whisper key that serves no function apart from getting the children accustomed to using it. We don’t tend to recommend the full whisper key mechanism for children, because they often bend the whisper key itself on the bocal while assembling or taking the instrument apart. And, since the fagottino is played with a comparably large reed (a normal bassoon reed), attacking the lower notes is not a problem at all. Professionals often make smaller reeds, so the whisper key mechanism comes into its own for them. And it’s not a problem to retrofit the whisper key mechanism at a later date, or indeed to make all sorts of other changes to the keywork.
We also manufacture a fully developed version of the quart bassoon (model Fg 4 P plus) for professionals, with extra keys as well as a full whisper key mechanism. Our idea of designing (double) reed instruments for children has proved to be a great success. We expect to introduce further improvements to children’s instruments in the future. They will also be designed and made in such a way that they meet all medical, pedagogical and – last but by no means least – ethical requirements.
Honda S2000
Wolf has great experience in manufacturing fagottinos, having started doing so in the 1980s. Nowadays, there is a fagottino for children that can also be supplied for adults looking for a special sound to play high solos, for instance in a wind ensemble. The small bassoons are also made of maple, with a hard rubber lining like the standard bassoons. The Wolf fagottino can be played with ordinary bassoon reeds and plays easily across the entire register with stable intonation (Fg 4 and Fg 5). Read more about this in “Bassoons for Children“
Bassoon S 2000 / S 2000 plus
Guntram Wolf Bassoon S 2000 Plus Parts
These bassoons are of professional quality and play clearly and evenly across the entire range. The maple wood used by Wolf to manufacture them has been matured for many years. Also wood turning and processing is done by computer-controlled machinery (CNC), which allows all of the dimensions to be achieved with great accuracy. The silver-plated keys have 7 rollers. The open finger holes are lined with hard rubber tubes that protrude slightly into the bore to prevent water ingress. The outer surface is beautifully lacquered in a matt synthetic finish. The S 2000 Plus is the same in principle as the S 2000, but using specially selected wood.
- beautifully flamed maple (S 2000 Plus)
- birds-eye maple for the S 2000 Plus V
- also available in yew (S 2000 Plus E)
- a high e key is standard
- other keys are available as options
The different types of timber give each instrument its own unique sound. Resonance is further improved by impregnation of the wood. All the keys without long rods are fitted with a by Wolf patented system to ensure that there will be no rattling noise, even if a key goes out of alignment!
Contraforte
This is an entirely novel development of a type of contrabassoon, born from a collaboration with Benedikt Eppelsheim and from Munich, Germany.
This is the contrabassoon that many players have dreamed about: a contra on which you can play more than four octaves using the same fingerings, which is rock solid and plays really easily across its entire register. The warm, full sound blends perfectly with other bassoons and other wind instruments (comparative research was undertaken by the Technical University of Dresden). The Wolf patent for silent keywork has also been applied to this instrument, which is also constructed entirely of wood. The Contraforte is played with extra-wide reeds, but can also be played with a “standard” contrabassoon reed, using an adapter on the bocal.
Contact: FagotAtelier Maarten Vonk
Guntram Wolf Holzblasinstrumente GmbH
Im Ziegelwinkel 13
96317 Kronach
Deutschland
Tel.: +49 9261 506 790
Fax: +49 9261 527 82
email: info@guntramwolf.de
http://www.guntramwolf.de
One day, more than 25 years ago, I was standing in a museum with an 18th century fagottino in my hands. A young girl passed by and said to her mother ‘Mum, look at that! Isn’t it cute! Isn’t it pretty! I want to play one like that!’ I thought ‘What a great idea!’
I made the first modern fagottino for children that same year.
Bassoon players and teachers thought it was ridiculous, but I told them ‘Just you wait and see!’
Nowadays there’s no need to convince anyone any more. We turn out large numbers of fagottini and sell them throughout the world.
We used to make standard bassoons with their mechanisms adapted for children but, as I’ll explain, we moved away from that notion for a number of reasons.
Guntram Wolf Bassoon S 2000 Plus Size
However, we had a few questions to answer before deciding to start making instruments especially for children.
The first thing to think about is whether children should really be starting to play the bassoon so young. We can learn something about this from biology, which tells us that whatever you learn in your formative years, before your tenth birthday, is imprinted in your brain and never forgotten. Before deciding to support music lessons at such a tender age by producing the instruments for the job, you need to investigate – without any preconceptions – whether this could in any way be harmful to a child’s physical health. This topic has been debated at length at a number of medical symposia. They debated all sorts of things that might be harmful to children, such as the pressure generated when blowing, dental development and so on. The result was that they could not find any insuperable problems. But on the other hand you have to reckon with the considerable weight of the standard bassoon. This weight imposes a burden on bone development among growing children, and can have serious consequences in later life. Also, it was felt that excessive spreading of the fingers and bad posture had to be avoided. One could deal with these potential downsides by building a small bassoon.
There’s actually a significant argument in favour of introducing children to the bassoon and the oboe.
From my own experience – I played bassoon and oboe when I was at school – I know that a large part of the repertoire of all sizes of amateur orchestras is drawn from 18th century composers. And this is exactly the type of music that consistently uses bassoons and oboes! These groups generally can’t afford to hire in professional guest players, which is why there’s such a great need for amateur bassoonists and oboists. So it’s really important that children should get a chance to learn and play the oboe and bassoon, even in primary school.
In the past, the biggest problem was that no suitable instruments were available for children of this age.
Now we can get back to the starting point for this article – to that little epiphany in the 1980s. Our first children’s bassoons found their way into schools and music schools and were very well received. Their growing success encouraged us to extend our range of children’s instruments with oboes and clarinets. As far as the bassoon is concerned, we eventually came up with three formats, in a range of configurations: model Fg 4, model Fg 5 and model Fg 8.
Children can play all three formats using normal bassoon reeds. The fingerings on the quart and quint bassoon are the same or for a normal bassoon. For our octave bassoon, in the simplest of configurations (model Fg 8), the fingerings are more like those of a historical bassoon.
Small bassoons were quite common in the 18th century. They served well as alto and tenor instruments, and nowadays they’re back in use in the same functions. They sound extraordinarily good as double-reed alto or tenor voices in ensemble music.
The attack and tuning on children’s instruments have to be as good as they can be, because children can’t cope with faults and weaknesses in instruments as well as a professional can. We offer all of our fagottini in a standard and a plus configuration. The difference is that the Plus models of the quart and quint bassoons have a complete whisper key mechanism, whereas the Standard models have a dummy whisper key that serves no function apart from getting the children accustomed to using it. We don’t tend to recommend the full whisper key mechanism for children, because they often bend the whisper key itself on the bocal while assembling or taking the instrument apart. And, since the fagottino is played with a comparably large reed (a normal bassoon reed), attacking the lower notes is not a problem at all. Professionals often make smaller reeds, so the whisper key mechanism comes into its own for them. And it’s not a problem to retrofit the whisper key mechanism at a later date, or indeed to make all sorts of other changes to the keywork.
We also manufacture a fully developed version of the quart bassoon (model Fg 4 P plus) for professionals, with extra keys as well as a full whisper key mechanism. Our idea of designing (double) reed instruments for children has proved to be a great success. We expect to introduce further improvements to children’s instruments in the future. They will also be designed and made in such a way that they meet all medical, pedagogical and – last but by no means least – ethical requirements.
Honda S2000
Contact: FagotAtelier Maarten Vonk
Guntram Wolf Bassoon S 2000 Plus Reviews
Guntram Wolf Holzblasinstrumente GmbH
Im Ziegelwinkel 13
96317 Kronach
Deutschland
Tel.: +49 9261 506 790
Fax: +49 9261 527 82
email: info@guntramwolf.de
http://www.guntramwolf.de/index.html