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Re: Marigaux F# issue

Author: Wes
Date: 2015-08-31 00:45

These instabilities are, in my opinion, fundamental acoustic situations that are present in oboes, d'amours, and English horns. The older Lorees often had them and my mentor told me to add the low B key for G2 and F#2, although my instruments do not have those situations. It is suspected that Loree made bore and/or key height changes which helped.

The reason for these instabilities is that the bottom half of the oboe below the F# is also a resonator, even with small open holes, and it tries to pull the frequency of the F# off because it is at a slightly different frequency than F#. This also can occur with the D2, but not as pronounced and the tuning is less affected.

For English horns and oboes d'amour, the situation is similar but acts at the next chromatic note higher, because those instruments only go to low B, not Bb as in the oboe. On my d'amour and my English horn, the affected notes are G2, Ab2, and Eb2. The G2 and Ab2 are corrected by fingering changes and the Eb2 by playing more softly as it is ok in tuning.

Sorry for the complex commentary. What to do? The pad heights in the bottom joint may be a little low and raising them may help. Consulting an expert oboe tuner would be good if you can find one.

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