My father, David Lock, who has died aged 87, was a bassoonist and reed-maker who provided generations of players with a regular supply of reliable and sensibly priced bassoon reeds.
The reeds, with their distinctive red binding, were all hand-finished in David’s workshop, and individually tested for quality. A rough estimation suggests that, over about 50 years, David made well over 100,000 reeds.
Born in west London, he was the son of Phyllis (nee Cowley) and Stanley Lock, a branch manager for WH Smith. The family moved to Littlehampton when David was in his teens.
He had a talent for music, and learned the cello and piano. Leaving school at 15, David worked briefly in a hardware shop, before applying to the RAF music services. David was told to learn the bassoon and quickly fell for the characterful qualities of the instrument.
As a member of the RAF Middle East Air Force band from 1956, he was sent to Cyprus, where he met Janet Jeffree, a signals officer in the WRAC, at a local choral society. They married in 1960.
Back in the UK, he was promoted to the RAF Central Band in Uxbridge. David took part in many prestigious events such as the Changing of the Guard and the Royal Tournament, when he swapped bassoon for bass drum or cymbals.
By now an excellent bassoonist and contra-bassoonist, David was also in demand as a freelance player and teacher. His description of a good musician was that “they played with taste and refinement”. This was exactly how he played.
He left the RAF in 1984, and with the help of his friend and engineering mentor, John Leppington, learned to repair bassoons, becoming one of the best in the country. Professional bassoonists, amateur players and students all sought him out to service their instruments. David also provided a match-making service finding instruments suitable for their new owners.
Meanwhile his reed-making was fast becoming a thriving cottage industry. John designed and made an automated profiling machine that transformed David’s production rate and orders flooded in. Janet would carefully package and dispatch the reeds, often in imaginatively repurposed containers.
In 1995 David and Janet moved to Stutton, in Suffolk, where David continued reed-making and mending bassoons. He and Janet hosted an annual garden party featuring the “Puffin Ensemble”, with David on contra-bassoon and his son, Steven, playing first bassoon. He also joined the local bell-ringing team and did voluntary work.
In the late stages of his life David struggled with Parkinson’s disease. He is survived by Janet, Steven and me, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
