Letter from Heckel – 1994

I recently discovered a letter I received from Heckel about a contrabassoon I was playing at the time. I was impressed that they took the time to write me back since this was well before email. I remember the instrument to be pretty basic and a bit clunky with the huge metal bell joint. Carried it all over Europe on tour … UGH was it heavy!

Here’s the text of the letter and a link to the PDF…

“Dear Mr. Westerling,
We received your letter of January 24, 1994. We read that you are the owner of our HECKEL‐CONTRABASSOON manufacturing number 175. This instrument we have built n 1906. We have delivers to FISCHER COMPANY NEW YORK. The tune is 437,5 Hz. More records we have not.
Thank you very much for your wishes. We wish also the best.WILHELM HECKEL GMBH”