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Re: Shortening the Stable

Author: Chris P
Date: 2017-06-13 02:12

The wide end of the staple is considerably wider than the bore at the base of the socket, so shortening the corked end will reduce the choke where the staple bore meets the instrument's bore.

What effect this may have can vary from player to player and from instrument to instrument. if it works and you feel no significant negative effects apart from the much sharper LH notes compared to the RH notes (which you'll have to lip down or up to pitch accordingly), then by all means experiment - you're only shortening the staple so there's no permanent changes done to the instrument itself (and you can always transplant the cane onto another reed or use a spacer in the socket).

I worked on an early '70s Buffet oboe that came from Hungary and it had been altered and retuned to play to around 444Hz. The reed socket was countersunk to around 5mm deeper than normal (and still had metal at the base!) and other tonehole work had been done to bring the overall pitch up uniformly. The player was using it in the UK, so they had trouble playing down to 440Hz.

I made a plastic spacer that fitted into the socket so the staple didn't go in as far and that helped to an extent, but as tuning and voicing work had been done, the tuning was all over the place so difficult to use even though it played nicely otherwise. The player found an older Howarth S5 which I had to remove the thumbplate and add a 3rd 8ve key to make it the standard conservatoire system she was used to, so she now has an oboe that will play at 440Hz with her reeds.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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