Heckel CREST Bassoon Information

Last update:  02/10/2012 23:25:08

CREST Information

Heckel CREST bassoons are a new model of bassoons being sold by the Heckel firm. The following are some known (and suspected) facts about CREST bassoons:

• Began production in 1988. May have originally been called OPUS,
• CREST bassoons are not constructed by a single craftsman as Heckel bassoons are; several workers might be utilized to construct a single instrument,
• There are no variations or options offered--the wood color is red, keywork is standardized and the bells are all German style (white top ring). The company says this is done in order to reduce the cost of production, since there will be no such thing as a custom-order CREST,
• Instruments are identified with a string in the form HC nnmmyy, where nn is a serial number, mm is the month of production and yy is the year of production. I assume that HC stands for Heckel CREST. The serial number is assigned when the work of assembling the instrument is begun.
• Despite rumors to the contrary, CREST bassoons are assembled in the Heckel factory. One piece of construction is performed out-of-house; I am told by a very reliable source that the key work is actually assembled in the home of one of the Heckel employees.

CREST Serial Numbers

Serial Number	Date	Known Owners	Pictures	Description	History	Known Sales
22	Jun 1996		Left thumb area U=tube Serial number Small cracks in face of High Eb and High E tone wholes	This is a pre-CREST, an OPUS bassoon	Seen in the Kenmochi Bassoon Works (Japan, 9/2006)
58	Jun 1999	1
60	Jun 1999	1
65	Sep 1999	1	Overall in case CREST label on bell CREST label and top of boot Serial number under boot cap
66	Sep 1999	1
68	Mar 2000	1
89	May 2002	1			Serviced by Carl Sawicki
84	Jan 2004				Confirmed as first CREST shipped in 2004 by the factory

Summary statistics for Heckel CRESTs in our database

Last update:  02/10/2012 23:25:08

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