Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-05-03 22:45
Q. What is the best way to clean an oboe, top to bottom, inside and out?
A. If you mean general maintainance, then use a silk pullthrough for the bore and an old T-shirt for the keys and wood. If you're servicing or overhauling, use a bristle-type mop for the bore to apply bore oil with, and an old T-shirt torn into strips, slightly dampened to clean the joints with.
Q. Is there a polish for the outside (or bore for that matter)?
A. Not that I use, but oboes are polished by machine buffing during manufacture to get a deep shine, and bore oil for the bore. For keys, use an old T-shirt to remove perspiration or a silvercloth to shine the silver up with.
Q. Do octave vents have a life expectancy (should they be replaced at some point) ?
A. They should be replaced only if they look corroded (brown staining) and you're having trouble with them. But their lifespan is hugely variable - some can last only a couple of years whereas some will last for decades.
Q. Why is the vent hole so small? It barely supports a pin to clean it out. Sop sax in b-flat (a little bigger than oboe ) has octave vents much larger.
A. As the bore in an oboe is so narrow, the toneholes and vents are also narrow. An oboe's 8ve vents are somewhere between 0.7mm and 0.8mm (Howarth currently use a 0.75mm diameter hole through the 8ve tops), but it depends on the maker. And never force anything into the vent hole that could enlarge it.
Soprano saxes have a much larger bore, and consequently much large toneholes.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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