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Re: weird oboe

Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-03-03 00:51

When it comes to upgrading, you can still have a full conservatoire system oboe with an added thumbplate, so you can still use thumbplate fingerings as well as the conservatoire fingerings. And a thumbplate can be fitted to any make of oboe of your choosing at any point in time.

As most UK players have started on and learnt on thumbplate oboes (and many on Howarth 'B' models) it's normal for them when they buy a pro oboe (of any make, not just Howarth) to get one fitted with a thumblate which makes it a 'dual system' - and these have the best features of both thumbplate and conservatoire, and can do things that can't be done easily on either pure thumbplate or pure conservatoire oboes - eg. a clean and fast G-Bb or G-C tremolo.

Since I've been at Howarth, I've only seen two pro model thumblate oboes made (the S2 - ring key thumbplate model) - all the pro models and higher student models are conservatoire or dual system - it's only the 'B' model, S10 and S20 (and the discontinued S25) that are pure thumbplate system.

The S20c, S25c, S40c, S45c, S55c and S65c student/intermediate oboes are conservatoire system, and have been made both with (dual) and without thumbplates (conservatoire) or had thumbplates added later on to convert them to dual system.

The S3, S4, S5 and XL models are also conservatoire system, though now the S5 and XL are the only pro models that are currently produced - the ring key S3 and S4 (which is an automatic octave version of the S3) can be made to order, though there's very little call for them since the full Gillet conservatoire is now the system of choice, and can have a thumbplate fitted at the time of manufacture, or fitted later on.

But it's more difficult and costly to convert a pure thumbplate system to conservatoire or dual system due to the extra keywork involved.

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

Post Edited (2007-03-03 00:55)

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