Author: Lili
Date: 2003-11-16 17:53
Stephanie Zacharek in Salon Magazine (www.salon.com), while reviewing Master and Commander and talking about wooden ships said something that made me think immediately of this discussion. She said:
"Like pianos, guitars and violins, they're built of stuff that used to be alive, and it sometimes seems as if, deep down, their once-spongy cells retain a sense memory of what that was like. "
As romantic as this sounds, I think there is truth in this. But, there are practicalities to life, and if you are young and will be in playing situations beyond your control, perhaps for now a plastic oboe would be better. The Fox 330 would be an excellent choice, but right now the price for one, whether new or used, seems quite excessive for a plastic oboe. After a long period of deliberation, we recently bought our high school aged daughter a new Patricola S.6 for about $300 more then the price of a new Fox 330. It is their professional instrument, and far better then her skill level at this point. She needs to be very, very careful with it. If she needs to play in outdoor concerts or while marching (I know it is ridiculous to march with an oboe, but apparently the football team and Santa need oboe support), she uses the school's instrument, which is an ancient plastic Selmer without a Bb key. The Patricola is used for lessons, practice, and the concert band, and she needs to be thinking about the instrument at all times when she is using it outside the house. This is hard for an adult to do, and almost impossible for a young beginning student.
So, back to the question. Wooden or plastic? We live in a very warm humid climate with no central heating and very little other climate control, so cracking is not a problem, but extra care must be given to keeping the keywork and body clean. There are no qualified repair shops any where near us, so we also needed to have a well built instrument. The answer for us was to buy the absolute best instrument we could afford from someone or someplace where you could try the instument out for a time period and have some sort of guarantee. E-bay is a scarey place if you don't know exactly what you want, and even if you do, you might not get it. For the most part, all sales are final. You can resell a bad instrument, I guess, but then someone else is stuck with it.
I am partial to Patricola's. They have a highly rated student model, and an intermediate model. all reasonably priced. For plastic, the Fox's seem the best, but are pricey. I believe there is also a good intermediate level plastic Yamaha, which might give better value. But as everyone here has said, have someone help you with this. This is sometimes easier said then done. We live in the middle of nowhere on an island with only one oboeist who teaches and have either had to fly to try oboes out, or pay $100 per try in shipping to have them sent to us. We researced heavily on the internet, and took a lot of time in our decision. As everyone keeps saying, there is no best oboe, only the oboe that suits you and situation. Perhaps, first you should think about all the variables of your situation, age, playing conditions, ability or desire or maturity to really give an instrument the care it needs (be honest!), the climate you live in, and your finances. From what I've noticed, if you buy a good instrument and take care of it, you can always sell it and get close to what you paid for it. And the hunting process is actually kind of fun. Good luck!
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