 The Oboe BBoard
|
Author: LongCat
Date: 2014-11-17 06:37
I bought my first wood oboe a few months ago and I love it, but I am so paranoid about it cracking, especially now that winter is coming up. Where I live, winter get extremely cold (frequently below 0 degrees F). I bring my oboe to and from school daily, so it'll be exposed to the weather quite a bit. In addition, the instrument storage room where I keep it is always freezing, as my school's geothermal "heating system" doesn't work at all. So I was wondering if I should do something to keep it warm/make temp changes more gradual. Maybe I could wrap it up in a fleecy sweatshirt or something? How about in the car? I'm assuming having the heater on is a bad idea, yes?
Anyways, I would love any advice I can get on this subject.
Thanks!
Post Edited (2014-11-17 06:39)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: oboi
Date: 2014-11-17 10:00
Never play your instrument while cold. It will do okay if cold when you're not playing, but if you have it in a storage room and say, have to set up and play right away in band class, that's a recipe for disaster. Do you have time to warm it up in your hands/under your armpit before playing?
I always keep my case (that also has a leather cover) inside my large backpack. Of course, if you have school stuff, it may be hard to fit other stuff in there, too. I can fit my laptop, the oboe, music, reeds and sometimes reedmaking stuff or baroque oboe in there as well.....yeah, my backpack is almost bigger than me! However, given the weather here, it still gets cold when I arrive at my destination. So I make time to arrive early to warm it up. If I arrive late, then I just don't play till I'm ready (which may or may not work for you).
I don't know if it makes any difference, but I don't play my oboe before I go out when I can (e.g., before rehearsal). Of course, coming back from rehearsal I don't have that luxury. But at least I don't shock it both ways.
I'm a little paranoid about my English horn because obviously it doesn't fit in the backpack and it has a flimsy cover. So I will put that in my BAM case, which at least is nicely padded. But I do wish I had a cover OVER the BAM case itself. I have been wondering whether those insulated grocery bags would work when it gets uber cold. That is, temps that are below -20C (-4F), which is like all the time in the dead of winter here.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: oboi
Date: 2014-11-17 10:04
(Hmm... can't edit my post.)
I also oil my oboe and keep it humidified, and make sure my house's humidity doesn't dip too low. I am also cautious about leaving it near the heat vent and keep it well away so as not to shock and dry it. I also swab my oboe quite a bit while playing so I don't have too much moisture sitting inside the bore for any length of time (and thus rarely have water stuck in tone holes either).
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jouez_hautbois
Date: 2014-11-17 19:43
Do you use a Damp it or a Humistat in your oboe case?
I'm thinking about it... Where I live, winters can get as cold as -40 Celcius and the home becomes really dry! :-)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: LongCat
Date: 2014-11-18 02:19
Excellent advice, thank you. And yes, I do have some time to warm up my oboe before rehearsal, but it's really not enough for me to feel totally comfortable. Most of the time, I am warming up my instrument right up until the conductor puts his hand up for our first piece. I typically don't have time to get air moving through the instrument before we actually start playing. That's sort of why I would like to keep it warmer while it's put away- so I don't have to spend as long warming it up before rehearsal.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: LongCat
Date: 2014-11-18 02:29
Right now I have a Dampit in my case, but I am planning on switching to a humistat. The dampits need to be refilled constantly, which can be a real nuisance. Humistats are nice because you can see when you need to refill them and you can adjust the output level of it.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: oboi
Date: 2014-11-18 04:30
I've never used a Dampit. I don't like the humistats. I use a water pillow in my case. When my instrument goes into extreme dry mode (most often on the horn, when the bell ring drops off [nothing like it going CLANG during a performance!]), I'll use some orange peels temporarily.
I've seriously considered on one or two occasions, stuffing the oboe inside my coat. I take the bus wherever I go, so that is one last resort option I leave open!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2014-11-18 10:28
Why would anyone in their right mind have a good wooden Oboe in an extreme climate ?
Surely there must be good quality plastic Oboes available. Or perhaps not.
The one Oboe that I wished I still had was my Bundy plastic simple Thumb Plate which had an excellent tone and very reed friendly. I've used it in the middle of an Australian heat wave with no problems. Then I upgraded to a Howarth Dual System S55c. That's never taken out in extreme weather conditions. That's when I'd use my T Ridenour Lyrique C Clarinet.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Oboelips
Date: 2014-11-19 02:17
Several things help me through the Iowa winters:
1. I made an insulated gig bag...holds not only the oboe in its case & cover, but all the appurtenances too (shelf, tuner, reed case, music folder).
2. I DO sometimes put the oboe (in its case, with the case cover on it) under my coat with me. My body heat helps to keep the worst of the chill away.
3. If I'm planning on travelling with the oboe, I warm up the vehicle just a wee bit.
4. I do what I can to humidify the oboe appropriately.
Iowa can have sub-zero temps, as well as tropical ones. If you take care of it, the oboe can survive in this harsh climate. 
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: jhoyla
Date: 2014-11-19 13:24
I'm not an "armpit" guy - I don't have long, tubular armpits ;-)
Instead, I put up my stand and pop a reed in to soak. Then I put the instrument together and wrap my big, warm hands around the octave-vents and trill-keys for as long as I can before I have to start playing - at least for five minutes. This also seems to help avoid water in the octave vents for the rest of the evening.
J.
P.S., if anyone has a graphing thermo-probe, I would LOVE to know how fast the inside of a top-joint warms up when wrapped by hands, armpits or stuffed under one's woolly jumper!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: mschmidt
Date: 2014-11-20 02:46
Just my two cents (which have been much discounted by others in the past): Worry more about humidity than temperature. The thermal coefficient of expansion of woods is small; the humidity coefficient of expansion of woods is relatively large. Cracking is most likely caused by the stresses that result when the oboe does not uniformly expand and contract in all places, inside and out. Since the bore will inevitably experience 100% relative humidity at high temperature (breath temperature), you need to make sure that the exterior never gets too dry. Keep your oboe in your case when you're not playing it, with a source of moisture. Swab out your oboe so that the interior wood does not swell excessively due to an overabundance of moisture.
The only time I had an instrument crack on me was when I left it out of the case overnight upon the instruction of a repair person, who said I needed to leave it put together overnight to compress the new tenon cork he had installed. It wasn't particulary cold in my house, but we were experiencing dry winds. I still kick myself for following the directions of that repair person. A different repair person pinned the crack and the oboe still has a great sound.
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
