Author: vboboe
Date: 2007-12-31 20:12
thank you very much for staying with me on this
it's always bothered me that i can't seem to fill up my top notes no matter how much i ooo open throat + jaw drop + extra air pressure + aperture centre focus, and i've even tried pushing out my cheek muscles to increase mouth cavity a fraction more -- doing all this makes a relatively small improvement, but the 'operatic' full sound just isn't there and it's a lot of extra hard work which compromises embouchure too -- however, these thin notes can be very sweet, very 'bird-song' in quality, they just don't have that beautiful crystalline resonating ring to them, heck even my straining alto's head singing voice can do it better with resonance, but Gabriel's Oboe High B just isn't sublimely ringing throughout the firmament on my oboe :-(
well, yes, maybe my DIY reeds still need improvement, but hey, we've got to learn to manage bum reeds with 'our own voice' anyway
... i think my prime suspect for a leaking pad is the collapsed dome with 3 tiny cracks in the 1st 8ve pad, the C# & D trill vent area looks secure, no deep splits there -- the wood's grainy though
Maybe this oboe's wood is 'breathing heavily' via grain lines throughout top joint? The wood is not super-fine grain or completely surface smooth, the whole top joint is grainy. Previous spring repair did a preventive maintenance fill in long open grain line underneath 1st 8ve, but that line doesn't reach into the vent itself. Perhaps more frequent smear oiling of the wood might be helpful, more so than usual? This oboe's only 2.5 years old (and beyond the 1 year warranty period)
Humidity & dessication -- i practice oboe regularly, not less than 3x a week, usually between 1-2 hours each time, more frequently than that in some weeks than others, so there's a lot of breath humidity going in there, and my damp silk is drying out with oboe inside the case each time. I don't leave my oboe out all day between practices. My winter-heated home may be lower humidity than average when heat's off in fall and spring, but it's also quite cool inside, nearly always under 70, and my local climate is cool temperate and rainy, so it's not like there's rapid dessication going on.
... ah, yes, the smelly cig smoke test is not within my circle of friends, but i certainly will approach Mr Repair Guy (who uses a light test, although he might have a smoking colleague to do a smoke test) with an impassioned plea to seek out and solve the weak suction test on top joint, although he's away out of town on winter vacation just now
HEY ... bright light goes on ... does my student plastic model top joint fit my intermediate wood model?! (Yamaha plastic 211 and wood 441)
... well, the D trill top joint flange has to juggled so it overlaps and this means the RAb rod and the F# rod are offset by the width of the rod knob, and of course i'm missing the top D trill lever on the beginner model top joint, also had to bend LAb up a bit to miss hitting LEb, and getting the F# thingy to close the G# vent was a juggle too ... but joint fits together and doesn't wiggle, that bit's OK
... the playing test ...
ack! the Bb and A don't play right in this combo, the all-plastic beginner model gets Bb and A OK, and the intermediate all-wood model gets Bb and A OK, but the combo isn't a semitone, more like a demi-demi-tone apart
-- BUT... the sound is definitely stronger in the combo, so i think we have to conclude the wood joint is definitely 'airy'
... it was worth the try just to come to that inevitable and painful conclusion!
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