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Good lord. I have vaguely heard of a Bassoon but I had assumed it was some sort of large mammal!

LOL! It could be mistaken for some sort of weapon. It needed some assembly each time. These things are seriously expensive if you are going for professional level, but I assume the one the school gave me was more basic. I just made low frequency parps with it.

My daughters trumpet is quite basic and looks well used. One of the buttons is missing its sort of pearl inlay. I am quite glad they at least gave her one though for the reasons you say. They cost a lot!