Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2008-07-25 16:20
"... flutes require balancing..."
Meaning?
"... oboes.......... don't even go there..."
Actually, in some ways well-made oboes are relatively straightforward to work on, because so many things that need adjusting have adjusting screws. And for most of the oboe, keys are so rigid that flexing of metal is not an issue.
".. saxes (haven't done one yet) and bassoons are straightforward with bigger parts, but you'll need bigger pads and all that good stuff.."
In some ways saxes are a lot more tricky than other woodwinds, because flexing of metal is a big issue, affecting many adjustments. I suppose that is because they are made very flimsy in order to keep the weight down."
Bassoons have many keys, but relatively simple, undemanding linkages. however tone holes are often far from level, especially where one pad covers three tone holes at once.
Wooden and plastic instruments have the complication of significant movement of the material - plastic from temperature, and timber from moisture content. This is quite a big deal when trying to get pivots accurate in a larger instrument.
Venting is not much of an issue with flutes, but a technician really needs to be a reasonable clarinet player to attend well to venting when adjusting clarinets.
But probably the worst instrument to adjust is the hand-made flute which has no adjusting screws. How absurd! It just means that certain adjustments can take hundreds of times longer, and offers the unreliability of little critical scraps of paper etc possibly falling off the keys in what is likely to be an oily environment that tends to release the glue.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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