My brother owned a Mollenhauer contrabassoon when he was still in high school in the Detroit area. 1970-71. Very same vintage as the one in this video. Serial #532. He studied with the contra player in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and unfortunately went to study with Hugh Cooper in Ann Arbor. My brother dropped out of school and never played bassoon again. I remember we sold the contra for $2600 to a member of the Seattle Symphony?
Mollenhauer has a delicate contrabassoon sound. They are very soft to play. I've played Moosman Contra and they have more power. Mollenhauer are much softer, but less powerful.
I play on a Mollenhauer from that era or a little earlier in my local symphony orchestra. It's fun to play and with a good reed I can get a great tone on it, but the keys need some work. The right thumb F# key has bent and if I use it it causes the pinky F key to remain closed.
Cool! It would be great if the symphony could set aside a few hundred bucks (less than 2% of the value of that horn!) to fix the keywork. The Mollenhauer''s keys are pretty basic and any repairman should be able to get them working smoothly again. Also they could put lithium grease in the screws to quiet them down. To check the wood, I'd recommend someone who knows contras since putting the joints back properly and without leaking can be tricky. Thanks for checking out the video! - J
Thanks for the tips. It's owned by the University here so i'm going to email the professor of double reeds who's in charge of that stuff and see if we can get it fixed before the end of the month when symphony concerts start back up. We're playing The Rite of Spring with full instrumentation in April so it has to be fixed before then.
You should seek out a Schreiber contra to review. The newer ones especially have some fantastic key work, in my eyes. It’s less difficult to get “lost” on the key work too
Best existing Contrabassoon make.
My brother owned a Mollenhauer contrabassoon when he was still in high school in the Detroit area. 1970-71. Very same vintage as the one in this video. Serial #532. He studied with the contra player in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and unfortunately went to study with Hugh Cooper in Ann Arbor. My brother dropped out of school and never played bassoon again. I remember we sold the contra for $2600 to a member of the Seattle Symphony?
Very nice report. We will add it to our RUclips channel. Best regards Gustav Mollenhauer & Söhne KG
Appreciate your compliment and indeed your fine instruments. Kind regards from California!
Mollenhauer has a delicate contrabassoon sound. They are very soft to play. I've played Moosman Contra and they have more power. Mollenhauer are much softer, but less powerful.
This is a great project, I hope you get more contras!
Yep. Flying banana haha
I play on a Mollenhauer from that era or a little earlier in my local symphony orchestra. It's fun to play and with a good reed I can get a great tone on it, but the keys need some work. The right thumb F# key has bent and if I use it it causes the pinky F key to remain closed.
Also i never knew to remove the U bend on it, I hope the wood is still good
Cool! It would be great if the symphony could set aside a few hundred bucks (less than 2% of the value of that horn!) to fix the keywork. The Mollenhauer''s keys are pretty basic and any repairman should be able to get them working smoothly again. Also they could put lithium grease in the screws to quiet them down. To check the wood, I'd recommend someone who knows contras since putting the joints back properly and without leaking can be tricky. Thanks for checking out the video! - J
Thanks for the tips. It's owned by the University here so i'm going to email the professor of double reeds who's in charge of that stuff and see if we can get it fixed before the end of the month when symphony concerts start back up. We're playing The Rite of Spring with full instrumentation in April so it has to be fixed before then.
I LOVE IT!!!
Thanks, Alex!
You should seek out a Schreiber contra to review. The newer ones especially have some fantastic key work, in my eyes. It’s less difficult to get “lost” on the key work too
Isn't the Schreiber contrabassoon made by Mollenhauer?