The Oboe BBoard

The Oboe BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Re: Blow-Out

Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2004-11-08 13:57

Many oboists swear that instruments blow out after a few years. I played (as a clarinetist) in a quintet with a student of Elaine Douvas, who swore (and said Elaine did too) that even a feather eroded the bore enough to spoil an oboe after about three years of professional use.

I frankly don't believe it. And at any rate, Eugene Goosens played on one oboe for his entire career, and I've read that John de Lancie did, too.

That's not to say that old oboes are necessarily good. There are any number of people (including some well-known repair technicians) who re-ream the bore of the upper joint, to reduce resistance, or because it has gotten out of round, or because of a crack, or because the instrumnent is playing badly and needs something -- anything -- to try to bring it back. These changes aren't usually visible. A thousandth of an inch can make or break an instrument.

According to the repairman Alvin Swiney, who works primarily on oboes and bassoons these days, the accumulation of thread fibers in tone holes is primarily responsible for "blow out." He posted a long article on the Klarinet board, with reference to clarinets, which applies even more strongly to oboes, which have smaller bores and tone holes.

http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1999/06/000791.txt

Swiney has several intersting articles on his web page at http://www.corkpad.com, but it's been down for a while. Be aware that he's prone to exaggeration, and there have been complaints from time to time about slow work. (Also, he says he was an apprentice of the great repairman Hans Moennig, but there's some doubt about whether Moennig ever had formal apprentices. Many people who knew Moennig say he just let people in to watch.)

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics

Author

Date

Blow-Out new

Bill_D

2004-06-21 09:32