Author: vboboe
Date: 2008-04-27 01:31
... as soon as reasonably possible, get the octave vents cleaned out by a pro repair technician, and while oboe's in for that, may as well get it refitted and adjusted with brand new pads (old ones may be contributing to your problem) and whatever else it needs, oiling, etc -- there's nothing quite like a bit of annual TLC spa treatment for any instrument that serves you well
Meanwhile, i'm going to assume your 6-7 year-old oboe has never been cleaned INSIDE, so let's try this 'Granny 911' old-fashioned cleaning fix to see if it helps for right now (year-end concerts coming up, don't wanna take oboe in for fixing just now, yes?)
-- sight the bore towards a strong bright light, and see it if looks grimy in there, even if you can't see anything, or can't tell, clean it anyway.
It should look smooth and shiny, but if it looks 'matte' it's probably a bit grimy. All it takes is a thin film of 'stuff' in there to misdirect water where you don't want it to go. The holes cast shadows, but that's not what you're looking for, it's the degree of 'shininess' inside you're checking.
That bore's gotta be squeaky clean.
For this fix you're going to need more swabs, dish detergent, sterisol solution and if wood oboe, bore-oil . If it works, cheap fix.
If not, you can still use everything for annual spruce-ups.
Yeah. I'm serious. [:-] ANNUAL spruce-ups.
So if it's been 3-4 years already, and who knows what went on before you got it? ... this cleaning fix just might work for you
Cleaning step #1 -- wet-mop it, aka drag the bore -- use cotton oboe swabs wrung through in fresh and warm dish-detergent water -- just a drop or two of detergent, we're not doing a suds job here, just a grease solvent cleaning job - wring cloth just a little bit on the wet side of damp, but absolutely no drips -- the cotton swob is a bit thicker and gives more 'scrub' power than silk
When swab's cotton, usually there are two sizes, yes get both, use smaller upper joint swab --DON'T use the middle joint size of cotton swab in the top joint !
drop swab through each joint separately from the top to bottom, narrow end to wide end in each joint, and NOT through fully assembled oboe
drag length of swab back and forth several times by pulling it slowly along bottom of pipe, repeat at least 3x, all this to ensure moisture and friction are scrubbing the bottom-side of the pipe in particular, then pull the swab out at the bottom of each joint -- the thickness of the swob will friction the upper-side at the same time, especially in top joint where you're having the problem, but make sure you're dragging along the bottom-side of the pipe
Inspect the swab, if cloth takes off 'something' grungy (sometimes wood dye, ignore that), it's a good idea to do it all a second time, so rinse out the swab in dish-detergent water and drag through again until it does come clean (again, ignore wood dye)
Dry swob or air dry the joints, then sight the bore again, does it look any shinier or cleaner inside?
Cleaning Step #2, repeat all above with Sterisol solution (it's another kind of solvent)
Cleaning Step #3 -- if you've got a wood oboe, lastly drag the bore with bore-oil, but DON'T oil plastic, skip Step 3 for plastic.
There shouldn't be any oily patches anywhere after oiling.
Don't pour bore-oil down the oboe!
Apply bore-oil to a clean dry swob, work it into the cloth, when cloth is oily enough to lightly smear your fingers, then pass it through, that's all you need for cleaning purposes (bore-oil is another kind of solvent)
If the water problem seems less of a problem but still persists even after all this effort (and the fine oil film will help redirect moisture, so that's why it's important to friction the lower side of the pipe top to bottom) -- then let's assume first cleaning isn't good enough, repeat thoroughly again in 2nd and 3rd weeks, sometimes the oil works something loose that was stuck too tight to budge it before
If problem still persists after that, it's definitely time to seek expert help
Hot Tip for everyday cleaning -- 'drag' your silk swob through for final drying when put your oboe away after each use -- while it's still very wet inside. This will scrub the bore a bit each time, yeah, it'll wear out silk swob faster, but what's a new swob every September?
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