Replacing a Heckel boot socket liner

March 3rd, 2023

Replacing a Heckel boot socket liner – the socket liner on this bassoon had previously come out, and was then glued in place at the wrong depth. When it comes to the acoustics and longevity of a top tier professional bassoon, what may seem like a small issue actually amounts to quite a big one. The liner no longer reached the bottom of the socket, leaving a gap between the metal and the wood. This creates a disturbance in the air flow (which affects the sound), and allows water to come into contact with the wood where it should be sealed (leaving the wood vulnerable to water damage and rot).

Both the outside and the inside of the new liner needed to be tapered at different angles – the outside to match the taper of the socket, the inside to match the taper of the wing joint tenon. To do this we used our CNC lathe to accurately cut the brass to the exact dimensions we needed. Without CNC technology this would have been a more complicated job.

The new liner fits the wing joint perfectly, and the bassoon now plays as it would have done originally.

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