Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-10-08 22:05
CJ -- I'm not sure that a Rigoutat Delphine for $2,000 - $2,300 is a good deal. A year or so ago, I helped someone I know from the Clarinet Board with a "first oboe" purchase, and she ended up choosing a Delphine from a reliable Ebay dealer who buys distressed instruments and reconditions them. At the time, I was afraid that I had talked her into something too expensive -- it was around $1,200. But I guess I feel better, seeing those two listed at $2,000 and above!
Judy -- there are quite a number of reputable dealers who sell online, either via the classifieds on this board or on their own websites (including the ones CJ has mentioned), or Ebay. If you use the "search" function at the top of this page (little tiny boldface print right above the first message), and search on something like "buy used oboe", you will find lots of messages linking to various favorite sites.
Most of these dealers will let you return an instrument that you don't like. Of course, shipping is on you. One dealer that is in your area, more or less, is Peter Hurd http://oboes.us/sell/oboes.html The oboes on his site are just "examples" of his stock. If you contact him and tell him what you think you want, he will have lots of advice for you. It's an informative site, too.
Being in Eugene, you are also not all that far from the SF Bay Area of California, home to Forrests Music (Berkeley), a double-reed specialist also online at http://www.forrestsmusic.com/. I notice that all of their used instruments are a bit high-end, but they carry new good student lines, too.
You could take a day and fly down to SF or Oakland, and have a field day trying instruments at Forrests (I did that once, even from Ohio!), eat some good food, and get home in time for bed (can't do that from Ohio).
One thing that nobody has mentioned yet is absence of the "left-hand F" on a lot of the cheaper oboes. That's the one thing I wish I had known about when I bought my first oboe. I'd pay an extra few hundred bucks for that feature. It's also really nice to have the basic trills, an articulated C-C#-B mechanism, and the low Bb (your teacher can explain those to you). On the other hand, when you are first struggling to just get the notes to sound consistently, you really won't care about the keywork. And by the time you know enough, and play well enough, to care about the keywork, it will be time for a classy new "pro" oboe.
Hey, let us know what you get, OK?
Susan
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
