Author: vboboe
Date: 2008-12-13 21:45
from what you're saying it seems most likely that your 3-year old oboe needs servicing ASAP, it's not working properly
... maybe it's fairly easy for the technician (and cheaper bill) to fix by tweaking some adjustment screws and balancing the caps / or straightening out some bent keys which may be bending further as you apply more pressure to close the caps / holes in futile effort to make the lower & octave notes speak
... or maybe it needs some key oil in critical moving joints that are binding and not dropping caps fast and easily, three years is too long for a working oboe to go without lubrication, or even if resting 3 years would need lubing to get going again
... whatever the problems, your repair mechanic should be able to find out and fix oboe for you
if you're interested in knowing for future reference, and if you have cig papers already (could substitute home perm papers or cooking parchment paper although the thicker paper will alter the relative results you get in 'drag weight') -- you could do a diagnostic paper test yourself on all finger pads, little caps between finger holes and the lower big pads, and draw a little diagram with arrows indicating the 'drag weight' of each pad,
ideally, all pads should have just enough friction for you to pull paper out with light to moderate resistance, not very heavy and tight, and if any let the paper fall out almost by itself, that pad's definitely not fitting properly
even if there's pressure, 5 very tight, 4 heavy, 3 medium, 2 light, 1 slight, or 0 none, this doesn't mean they're balanced properly
one time the Basic F screw worked loose on my Yamaha, screw-head jammed itself in the rod next to it and that held the Basic F cap ever so slightly open, of course couldn't play E and below, and also couldn't get at the screw in that position to do it myself, technician had to do some disassembly to fix that one
it's no short-cut to miss annual servicing of your instrument, even if it's working fine -- unless you haven't used it at all since last year -- must budget for instrument maintenance and emergency repairs as surely as budgeting for reeds
when you get the oboe back and it's working like a charm, do the diagnostic paper test again, and compare the results with your first test, then make yourself some reference notes on how 'drag weight' should feel when it works properly
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