Author: cjwright
Date: 2008-11-04 07:49
That range is not only effected by the tone holes themselves, but are major "node" centers that effect other tuning issues as well.
The issue of that severity probably isn't "adjustment issues" as previously suggested, but could be a variety of things. First of all, make sure you look down your bottom joint to see if it's been warped at all, and to see if the bore is still straight. Put the middle tenon near a light, and look up from the bottom, so that the light reflects against the bottom of the bore, and see if it has a curve.
The second thing you should be aware of is that range on the oboe is REALLY effected by the bell, and the bore of the bell. It's harder to tell if the bell has warped with time, but one thing you should definitely try is to rotate your bell quite so that the Bb bridge key is 30 degrees from where it should be, 60 degrees, 90 degrees, etc. all the way back to 360 degrees. Sometimes, you will find that the oboe plays better with the bell rotated 180 degrees! In which case, you might want to invest in a new bell.
Another thing I'd suggest is taking a kebab skewer, and fold a piece of electrical tape over it so that there's a 1-inch flap of tape hanging off of the end. Then, while you're playing a note between Db to F#, have someone slowly raise the skewer into your bell. At some point, the pitch should drastically change, and based upon how far up the skewer was when the pitch changed, you know that length is a pitch node. Then, try putting small pieces of electrical tape up in the bell to see if you can make the pitch drop into its normal range.
Try these suggestions, and let me know if any of them work for you.
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