In my sixth form, I heard the name ‘Heckel’ thrown around amongst bassoonists. Mechler’s reeds were constructed to produce a sound with great “presence,” in contrast to the reeds made by Ludwig and others in Munich, which had a much deeper sound.Hello! My name is Ashby Mayes and I am delighted to have just purchased a new bassoon after almost a year of serious searching. The result was Franz Groffy’s engineering of the 7000 series at the end of the 1920’s. They asked Mechler to go to Heckel with the problem. Lou Skinner told the story that during the 1920’s, Kovar and Kohon became dissatisfied with the way their Mechler reeds were functioning on Heckel’s new 6000 series bassoons (the reeds had worked well on the 5000 series instruments).

Mechler’s reeds were used by Simon Kovar and Bejamin Kohon of the New York Philharmonic. The opera house itself was destroyed by Allied bombs in September, 1944. Karl Mechler (Würzburg 1873 – Darmstadt 1945) became a member of the orchestra at the Darmstadt opera at age 18, in 1891, and remained there for 42 years, until March 1933, when he and 18 other personnel (including the general manager and 20-year-old actress Lilli Palmer) were fired because they were Jewish or “Jewish-sympathetizers.” According to a plaque that was placed in the lobby of the Darmstadt Staatstheater in 2011 commemorating these artists, some were sent to concentration camps where they were killed some emigrated and others, like Mechler, apparently remained in Darmstadt. More information about Knochenhauer is available here. Knochenhauer’s reeds were favored by Walter Guetter and his colleagues in the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Heckel built serial number 5000 for Knochenhauer in 1911 the bell of the instrument has a unique design that shows the serial number between branches of ivy.

Wilhelm Knochenhauer (Emmersleben 1872 – Dresden 1940) was a member of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden from 1898 to 1937, a period during which the music directors included Fritz Reiner (1914-21), Fritz Busch (1922-33), and Karl Böhm (1934-43). Here is a bit of information about famous makers of the 20th century:

Heckel bassoon serial numbers