Author: Dutchy
Date: 2008-11-05 20:02
I wouldn't obsess too much with worrying about the summer humidity in Western Pennsylvania. The summertime humidity over most of the continental United States is beastly, and there are all kinds of folks in the U.S. who successfully play wooden oboes. The thing you have to remember is, it's not humidity as such that's deadly to wood oboes--it's abrupt changes in humidity and temperature. It's when you bring your cold oboe from the air conditioned car out into the hot and humid park bandstand to play. And vice versa, when you bring your 90 degree oboe into a freezingly air conditioned hall.
It all boils down to management, and paying attention, nothing that can't be dealt with by tucking your oboe top joint into your armpit before you get out of the car, and certainly nothing that should put you off even considering a wood oboe in the first place.
Second the advice to "never buy an oboe you haven't personally played yourself". Oboe bores, materials, and reeds can combine to make each oboe an intensely personal experience, and an oboe that's "warm and fantastic!" to Person A may leave Person B wondering what all the fuss is about.
Also, take your time.
You need to educate yourself what all those terms mean. Look around on the Internet, google under "oboe", there's a lot of information out there, including lots of IDRS articles that people have posted. Also catalogs online and manufacturer's websites are good sources of information. Generally, things like "modified conservatory", "split ring", and "semi-automatic" refer to what kind of bells and whistles the keywork has ("resonite" is the proprietary name of "that kind of plastic") If you're shooting for a Deutschegrammophon recording contract, you'll want "ALL" the bells and whistles, i.e. "full conservatory", but if you're just going to play at a hobbyist level, "some", as in "modified", will do just fine.
"Conservatory" refers to a a system of keywork ("thumbplate" is the other system), whether "full", "modified", or "simplified" conservatory, which in my experience you should avoid as it tends to be a euphemism for "bare minimum starter instrument", which is what you're supposed to be moving up FROM.
Asking us "what kind of oboe should I buy?" is totally like asking us, "What kind of car should I buy?" We can only respond, "Dude. We have NO idea." It all depends on you, your taste, your skill, your pocketbook, your expectations, what you wanna do with it once you get it. You can spend $2000 for a nice plastic Fox and fool around with it as a hobbyist and have a good time, or you can drop $8000 on a Loree and aim for a Deutschegrammophon recording contract. It's all up to you.
The Online Auction site is a good resource for seeing what's out there in the World Of Oboes, BUT--you definitely do NOT want to buy your oboe from there, because it's a combination crapshoot and minefield, and you can really get taken by people who post pictures of oboes that are not the oboe they are selling, whether deliberately scamming or just out of stupidity.
You can also check out Nora Post, Midwest Musical, RDG. and WWBW for what's out there. They are all reputable sellers.
What kind of oboe are you using now?
Post Edited (2008-11-05 21:50)
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