Author: Northreed
Date: 2004-12-15 19:29
Hello MB & All:
IMHO, the most important physical aspect of EH playing is to have a bocal which matches your English horn as far as it's playing qualities (pitch, tone, ability to sing, absence of wonky notes, etc.). Even bocals of the same numerical designation are often quite different from each other.
The fit of staple to bocal is also important, but a bandaid solution is to put a bit (7mm long) of "aquarium tubing" (clear or green PVC, about 4mm ID) over the last 4 mm of the big end of the staple in order to seal it to the bocal and to stop it from wobbling. Some of the European bocals are a poor fit to the staples we get in North America: wobbling and popping off are common with these bocals ( I have had otherwise nice Kreul and Howarth bocals like this).
FYI, I use bocals made by Tom Hiniker, with Rigotti nickel/silver staples, which I have found are very uniform. Mark Chudnow's EH staples are also very uniform, but with a slightly larger bore than Rigotti, so they go further on my bocals by about 2 mm - i.e. they tend to play a little sharper than my other reeds. Tom Hiniker makes his bocals for an exact fit to the Rigotti staples, although he uses Rigotti brass staples for his own playing. Since the Rigotti staples are an exact fit to my Hiniker bocals, I do not have to use PVC tubing on my EH reeds, but usually put some on, well, just because...
BTW, I recently had a Ton Kooiman adjustable "thumb rest" installed on my new Loree EH. It is expensive, and takes a bit of getting used to, and considerable time to achieve the right adjustment, but I am delighted with the results so far. There is much less stress on my thumb and my entire right hand is more relaxed, allowing for easier, silkier playing.
Cheers!!
Nigel
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
