A full-size German-system bassoon weighs six and a half to nearly nine pounds — three to four kilograms. That is the figure Guntram Wolf gives, and it is the only bassoon maker publishing one at all.
The kilogram of spread between the bottom and the top of that range is almost all keywork. A student instrument carries sixteen keys; a professional one carries twenty-eight, each of them a silver-plated piece of metal with a post, an axle and a spring.
But the number is not what the question is really about. Seven pounds is about what a triple French horn weighs and a third of what a tuba player carries, and neither of those players complains the way bassoonists do. The reason is where it lands: on the index finger of the left hand, for the whole rehearsal, because that is where the instrument balances against a strap ring fitted near its bottom end.
Three to four kilograms — six and a half to nearly nine pounds — and almost none of it should be resting on you.
Seated, the whole weight goes through a seat strap into the chair, and your hands only steer. Yamaha says so itself, and every Renard bassoon leaves the Fox factory with a strap in the case. If yours went missing, this is the one to replace it with.
What a bassoon weighs
Almost nobody publishes this. Yamaha puts out a full specification for the YFG-811 and YFG-812 — fingering system, auxiliary keys, trill keys, body wood, key alloy, bocals, case — with no weight row. So do Fox, Heckel, Amati, Moosmann and Püchner. The exception is Guntram Wolf of Kronach, and the reason it publishes the figure is that it builds a bassoon designed around it.
| Instrument | Length | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Wolf Fg 8 octave bassoon | 63 cm | 0.35 kg · 12¼ oz |
| Wolf Fg 5 quint bassoon (in G) | 84.5 cm | 0.95 kg · 2.1 lb |
| Wolf Fg 4 quart bassoon (in F) | 92.5 cm | 1.2 kg · 2.6 lb |
| Wolf LT lightweight mechanism | ~135 cm | 2.3 kg · 5.1 lb |
| Ordinary full-size bassoon | ~135 cm | 3–4 kg · 6.6–8.8 lb |
Wolf states the ordinary figure flatly, in a sentence about its own lightweight model: a normal bassoon weighs between three and four kilograms. The LT mechanism, which is patented and which Wolf says is barely distinguishable from a conventional one by eye, brings a fully equipped instrument down to about 2,300 grams. Nothing is removed to get there. The keys are all still on it.
Why the figure you found was too low
The range quoted almost everywhere is three and a half to seven and a half pounds. The top of it is right. The bottom of it is not a bassoon.
Three and a half pounds is 1.6 kg, and no full-size instrument comes near that. What does weigh that little is a fagottino — a child’s bassoon pitched a fourth or a fifth above the real thing, 84 to 92 cm long instead of 135. Wolf builds four of them and gives the weights above. They are proper instruments with proper keywork, and Wolf records that the youngest quint-bassoon pupil it knows of was three and a half years old. They are not, however, what an orchestra means by a bassoon, and a figure taken from one and printed as the answer makes the instrument sound like a clarinet.
The French basson genuinely does sit at the lighter end, because it kept the older, sparser keywork when the German instrument went the other way, and Yamaha notes that its bore is narrower than the German bassoon’s as well. It is also rare outside France, so it is very unlikely to be the instrument in front of you.
The keywork is what moves the number
In the eighteenth century a bassoon had three or four keys. By the end of it, six. Carl Almenräder’s improvements in the early nineteenth century started from an eight-key instrument and went upward from there, and everything played today descends from that work.
Amati’s current catalog shows where it ended up. Their student model has sixteen keys. Their Artist model has twenty-five keys and nine rollers. Their Conservatoire has twenty-eight keys, eleven rollers and six trill keys. Every one of those is silver-plated nickel silver on a post, and the difference between the bottom and the top of that list is roughly the difference between three kilograms and four.
Wolf is blunt about the trend. Ever more extensive key fittings, it writes, have made instruments many times heavier over the last few decades — extra physical strain, and a less free feeling under the hands. Its answer was not fewer keys but lighter ones, which is the whole point of the LT.
Wall thickness, and why heavier is sometimes deliberate
The other variable is how much maple is left around the bore, and makers change it on purpose. Yamaha builds the YFG-811 with standard walls and the YFG-812 with thick ones, and describes the difference in its own guide: a standard-wall instrument is flexible and song-like, while a thick-walled one has a solemn, dark quality suited to orchestral playing, at the cost of needing more power from the player.
Fox’s professional chart runs the same way, listing thin wall, thick wall and hybrid across the line. Every Renard student model, by contrast, is thin wall. So the lightest bassoons and the cheapest bassoons overlap, and the extra kilogram at the top of the range is partly something the buyer chose.
Where the weight lands, which is the real question
Yamaha puts it more plainly than any player will. Because the strap ring sits towards the bottom of the instrument, it is impossible to avoid the weight of the bassoon resting on the index finger of the left hand — and if you slouch forward, more of it goes there. That is one finger, in one fixed position, holding up a seven-pound object for ninety minutes, and it is why the answer to “how much does a bassoon weigh” is never really a number.
Three things move that load, and they cost between nothing and about eighty dollars.
Neotech Bassoon Seat Strap
- Cup and strap; fastens to the chair leg
- 5-inch square seat pad, non-skid backing
- Adjusts 25–38 inches
- Made in the USA
- Cup fits any boot cap, hole or no hole
- Chair-leg attachment stops the pad sliding out from under you
- 13 inches of adjustment covers any chair the room has
- Does nothing at all if you play standing
- The cup is bulkier in a case than a plain hook strap
A seat strap does not reduce the weight. It changes what is holding it up: instead of the instrument hanging from a ring and being steadied by your left hand, it stands on the strap and your hands only guide it. Fox ships one with every Renard bassoon it builds, which tells you what the maker expects you to do with the thing.
The one detail worth getting right is the attachment. Fox’s factory strap is hook style, which needs a hole through the end of the boot cap; if your bassoon has no hole and no ring there, a hook strap will not attach to it at all. A cup, like this one, wraps round the outside of the boot cap and does not care. If you do not know which your instrument has, the cup is the safe answer.
Protec A317 Deluxe Padded Bassoon Harness
- Shoulder harness, universal size
- 1680D ballistic nylon, padded mesh lining
- Quick-adjustment pull tabs, wear-and-remove clip
- Open metal hook
- Spreads the load across both shoulders and the back rather than the neck
- Works standing, which a seat strap cannot
- The clip means you can get out of it without unthreading anything
- More to put on and take off than a strap
- Universal sizing is a compromise on a very small or very large frame
A plain neck strap is the thing most beginners are handed, and on a seven-pound instrument it is the worst of the three options: the whole load goes through the cervical spine at the point where it is least able to take it. A harness takes the same hook and puts the load on the shoulders instead. If you play standing at all — a recital, a pit with no room, a wind ensemble that stands — this is the piece of kit that makes it possible.
The third fix costs nothing, and the fourth is a part
Sitting up is free. Yamaha’s own instruction is that slouching forward transfers more of the instrument onto the left hand, so a straight back is worth more than any accessory and costs nothing to try tonight.
The part is a balance hanger. It is a small extension that attaches to the existing strap ring and moves the hooking point up towards where the instrument actually balances, and Yamaha names it as the standard solution for playing standing. Fox makes one and prices it at about $215, plus a bushing that has to be fitted into the top of the boot joint first. Amati fits a balance holder as standard on everything above its student model, and Marcus Bonna cuts a hole in its cases so the hanger does not have to come off to pack up. It is a fitted part rather than something to order casually, and the fitting is the reason: get the position wrong and you have moved the problem rather than solved it.
A hand rest, or crutch, is the right-hand equivalent, and most bassoons already have one — Fox fits a plastic one to every Renard and every polypropylene Fox. Replacing it is where people come unstuck, because the stem is not a standard size. Fox’s own plastic rest has a 3/16-inch stem, 4.8 mm, and Fox sells three different brackets for three different stems. The generic crutches sold online are commonly 5/32 inch, 4.0 mm, and several are sold as the crutch alone with no bracket and no screws. Measure the stem on the one you have before ordering anything.
Seven pounds is too much to hold through a rehearsal
Even with the weight on a strap, there are the bars you are not playing, and the twenty minutes at the end of a lesson, and the break. A bassoon cannot simply be laid down: water condenses at the lowest point of the bore, which on a bassoon is the metal U-tube in the boot, and Yamaha is explicit that this is harmless while the instrument is upright and a problem the moment it is horizontal, because the moisture soaks into the wood.
Hercules DS561B Bassoon and Bass Clarinet Stand
- Folding tripod, swivel legs with locking pins
- Base rest adjusts for bassoon or bass clarinet
- Retractable floor peg
- Load capacity 15 kg / 33 lb
- Holds the boot upright so the U-tube drains rather than soaks
- Base rest turns to face towards or away from the stand
- Folds small enough to go in a bag
- One more thing to carry, on an instrument that is already the heaviest thing in the room
- The rated capacity is far beyond anything a bassoon needs
The 15 kg capacity is four times what any bassoon weighs; the figure is there because the same stand takes a bass clarinet, which is a heavier instrument. What matters here is that it puts a seven-pound object down safely and upright, in the position the wood needs, in about two seconds.
What you actually carry: add the case
The instrument is not the heavy part of getting a bassoon to rehearsal. BAM publishes weights for its own, and its Hightech bassoon cases — the light end of the market, not the heavy end — run from 6 lb 9 oz to 7 lb 9 oz. That is another three to three and a half kilograms, which is to say the case weighs roughly as much as the bassoon inside it.
Add reeds, a swab, a strap and a bocal or two and the whole outfit is somewhere between fourteen and seventeen pounds. Nobody else publishes a figure: Protec, Fox and Marcus Bonna all give none, and Gator, which lists a weight for every clarinet and flute case it makes, does not build a bassoon case at all.
Protec PL252 Bassoon Gig Bag, Platinum Series
- 20 mm high-density foam, wood panel supports at stress points
- Padded backpack straps plus removable shoulder strap
- Dedicated double bocal section, modular interior blocks
- Water-resistant ballistic nylon, three exterior pockets
- Backpack straps put a fifteen-pound carry on both shoulders instead of one hand
- Modular blocks let you pack a standard or compact cut snugly
- Sheet-music pocket means one fewer thing in the other hand
- Foam and panels, not a shell — it will not survive an airline hold
- Costs a serious fraction of a student instrument’s rental year
A soft case is the only way the total comes down much, because the instrument’s own weight is fixed and the case is the only variable you control. Protec lists this at $294; it does not sell for that.
How that compares with everything else in the section
Every figure below is the maker’s own, which is the only way a table like this is worth anything — retail listings quote shipping weights and count the box.
| Instrument | Weight | Held how? |
|---|---|---|
| Concert flute, silver | ~440 g · 15½ oz | Three points, both arms up |
| B♭ clarinet | 656–866 g · 1.4–1.9 lb | Right thumb, one small rest |
| French horn, double | 5½–6 lb · 2.5–2.7 kg | Bell on the thigh, seated |
| Bassoon | 6.6–8.8 lb · 3–4 kg | Seat strap; left index finger steadies |
| Bass clarinet | 5.5–10 lb · 2.5–4.5 kg | Floor peg takes the weight |
| Euphonium | ~10.5 lb · 4.8 kg | Rests on the lap, seated |
| BB♭ tuba | 23–30 lb · 10.5–13.5 kg | Stands on the chair or a stand |
Read down the third column and the pattern is clear enough. The bassoon is not the heaviest instrument in the room and it is not close, but it is the heaviest one whose weight passes through a finger. A tuba stands on something. A bass clarinet stands on a peg. A bassoon hangs from a ring set in the wrong place, which is why makers invented a part whose only job is to move that ring.
Common questions
How much does a bassoon weigh in kg?
Three to four kilograms for a full-size German-system instrument. A lightweight-mechanism model comes in at about 2.3 kg, and child-sized bassoons run from 0.35 kg to 1.2 kg.
How much do a bassoon and its case weigh together?
Around fourteen to seventeen pounds, six to eight kilograms. The case is roughly half of it: BAM, the one case maker publishing figures, put their light bassoon cases at 6 lb 9 oz to 7 lb 9 oz.
Is a bassoon too heavy for a ten-year-old?
Seven pounds is not the obstacle, because a seat strap takes it. Reach is: the instrument is 135 cm tall and the left thumb has to cover as many as ten keys. That is what the child-sized instruments exist for, and Wolf’s quart bassoon in F is a fourth-transposing instrument at 1.2 kg and 92.5 cm. Amati takes the other route on its student model, fitting a short-reach mechanism and a detachable extension tube. Both are aimed at hands, not at weight.
Is a polypropylene bassoon heavier than a maple one?
Nobody publishes enough to answer it. Fox builds the Renard 41 and 51 in polypropylene and the 220, 222 and 240 in maple, and gives a weight for none of them. What its own chart does say is that all five are thin wall, so the wall thickness is not the difference between them. Anyone quoting you a firm figure either way is guessing.
How much does a contrabassoon weigh?
No maker publishes it, and it is worth noticing what they do instead: Fox sells a dedicated contrabassoon stand alongside its bassoon stand. The contra is not an instrument you hold up at all. Its weight rests on a stand or the floor, and the player sits behind it.
Why does my left index finger hurt after twenty minutes?
Because the instrument is leaning on it. Check the three things in order: are you using a seat strap at all, is the strap short enough that the bassoon is standing on it rather than hanging from you, and are you sitting up. If all three are right and it still hurts, a balance hanger is the next step, and it is a fitting job rather than a purchase.
Does a heavier bassoon sound better?
It sounds different, and one maker sells you both answers. Yamaha’s thick-walled YFG-812 is described in their own words as darker and more solemn, better suited to an orchestra, and harder to drive. Their standard-walled YFG-811 is the flexible, singing one. Meanwhile Wolf’s lightweight instrument keeps all the wood and takes the weight out of the mechanism instead, on the argument that a lighter instrument plays more freely. Weight is a variable makers move deliberately, in both directions, and neither end is the better bassoon.
How much does a bassoon weigh for shipping?
Far more than the instrument, and the number a courier quotes is not a specification. A bassoon ships in its case inside a box with packing around it, so budget on twenty to twenty-five pounds and expect dimensional weight to be what you are actually billed on, because the box is long.
Where to go next
If the size rather than the mass is what you were after, how long a bassoon is covers the 260 cm of bore folded into a 135 cm instrument and what that does to cases and reach. What a bassoon costs runs the ladder from renting to a Heckel, and why bassoons are so expensive explains where the money goes — a good deal of it into the same twenty-eight keys that account for the weight. Bassoon against oboe is the other double reed, and the woodwind family puts the whole section in order. For the instrument at the other end of the weight table, how much a clarinet weighs is a pound and a half through one thumb.