 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2014-10-05 02:06
The American (USA) firm Prowinds is advertising cheaper Oboes.
These are :-
Barrington 403 Intermediate $US 1560
Antigua Intermediate $US 2027
Vento Advance 800 series Model 8906 $US 1095
Jupiter Delux Model 355 $US 1798
Fox Renard Model 333 $US 2995
Selmer Intermediate Resin $US 2249
They also sell a cheaper Alto Oboe. This is the Vento grenadilla composite Cor Anglais at $US 2995
Any opinions as to how good (or bad) these cheaper Oboes (and EHs) are. When you consider how good student plastic Clarinets are these days owing to quality mass production, surely some of these Oboes can't be all that bad.
BJV
"The Oboe is not a horn"
Skyfacer
Post Edited (2014-10-05 02:09)
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-10-05 04:40
While the oboes are getting better in terms of tuning and tone quality, the keywork and general fit and finish has still got a lot to be desired.
I haven't yet seen a Chinese cor in the flesh - the one I have seen photos of was a very sorry looking Marigaux 930 copy.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: WoodwindOz
Date: 2014-10-05 07:58
Hi Barry,
I played a few Fox oboes in the US. They are true oboes, even scale, bullet proof construction, good sound. We don't see them in Australia, unfortunately, but you might want to send an email to Peter Musson who is Australia's direct importer of Fox Renard bassoons, if you are interested. I will likely purchase a used Fox as a backup plastic from the US.
The Selmer is okay in terms of construction, as long as you don't care about tone or tuning. :P
Jupiter flutes are quite nice, and Jupiter clarinets do the job. I am yet to see a Jupiter oboe in the flesh, but my experience with Jupiter on the whole is that the keywork can be a little too flexible.
The rest I would consider OSOs (Oboe Shaped Objects). I have seen too many Chinese flutes and clarinets in my teaching career, and seen the result of only a year's playing on them, to endorse any of these brands just yet.
If you are looking for cheaper plastic oboes, definitely give the new K.Ge oboe a try. I just played through them all at ADRS and was suitably impressed, and they start from around $AU2400. Ozwinds in Melbourne carries them, and you can buy direct (they are a Chinese/Australian company, Martin Lee is the Australian contact). I'd like to think that a company like K.Ge has too much at stake to risk endorsing a terrible instrument.
Rachel
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Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2014-10-05 08:23
Thanks for the informative response guys. At the moment I only have one Oboe, and that is a Howarth S55c Dual System. I'm using it to perform in the local theatre orchestra (Reed 2) in the musical 'Beauty & The Beast'. I'd like to have another Oboe as a standby instrument but certainly can't afford another Oboe of the same quality as the Howarth. My 'standby ' instrument at the moment is my Flute just in case the unlikely situation arises that my Howarth goes out of adjustment and I'm unable to readjust it.
Yes, I can imagine that the keywork on these cheaper Oboes would not be up to the standard of the quality instruments.
Incidentally, I don't have a Cor Anglais either so I"m using the Oboe to put in as much of the Cor Anglais part as I can. When the Cor part goes too low I use my C Clarinet. The lowest note of the Cor being B natural below middle C , it so happens that this is playable on the lowest note of my C Clarinet (low E ) Very convenient. Nothing like the beautiful melancholic sound of the Cor though.
BJV
"The Oboe is not a horn"
Skyfacer
Post Edited (2014-10-05 08:25)
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Author: WoodwindOz
Date: 2014-10-05 14:23
Hi Barry,
You might want to (if you haven't already) join ADRS. They have recently purchased two Howarth cors anglais to hire out to members (short term hire). If I didn't have access to my orchestra's cor and needed one, I would use this option.
Also, they are a lovely bunch of people!
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Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2014-10-05 16:17
Hi WoodwindOz, Yes, I"m already a member of ADRS. Joined up a couple of months ago. I asked them (via e-mail) if I could rent out a Cor for a month. But they never got back to me, hence the use of the C Clarinet for the show that I'm presently playing in. Pity. The rent calendar showed that no one was renting either Cor during the time that I requested. Perhaps they have a policy of not renting out to new members. I like their magazine "Reeding Matter" though.
BJV
"The Oboe is not a horn"
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Author: WoodwindOz
Date: 2014-10-05 17:51
Shame. There were some teething issues with the new secretary gaining access to the email address, and the website being awkward to manage, etc. I had website issues and wound up cc-ing everyone I knew who had been secretary!
If you need to borrow one again, I'd try this approach...just get the email contacts off the website of all the officers and hedge your bets by cc-ing all of them.
Otherwise Ozwinds has a used Rigoutat cor for sale for about $8K. :0
Rachel
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Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2014-10-05 20:53
Thanks for the set of pictures Chris. Very impressive work. I see you even got your initials on the instrument. I'd called it the Selmer/Peryagh 105 model
WoodwindOz. Thanks for the imformation concerning e-mails to ADRS. I'll keep that in mind. Spending $Aus 8000 on an instrument would make me physically ill. And my wife very angry
BJV
"The Oboe is not a horn"
Skyfacer
Post Edited (2014-10-05 20:55)
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