Author: oboedrew
Date: 2009-08-01 21:01
heckelmaniac wrote:
> Of course it is absolutely good practice to research ANY
> substance (even almond oil) that one may apply to the bore or
> to the outside of a wooden oboe instrument. In the most recent
> Double Reed Journal, Ron Fox talks at great length about
> treating the bore of oboe instruments with silicone based
> sealants.
Yes, that was an insightful interview. A good read, for sure. But I take issue with his suggestion that breaking up the stream of water in the bore is necessarily advantageous. It's easy enough to control where such a stream flows. Just never turn the oboe upside down. And, of course, swabbing regularly helps. But if the stream is broken into hundreds of droplets, it's harder to control, and any one of those droplets is big enough to clog an octave vent.
heckelmaniac wrote:
> I have likely treated 5 or 6 dozen oboe instruments
> with Thompson's Waterseal. I have never, not ever, had any
> adverse consequences whatsoever as a result of this treatment.
> Only most positive consequences. In my experience, treating the
> bore with liquid silicone does not affect the playing
> characteristics, the tone, or the timbre of the instrument.
I'm not taking a stance on either side of this debate. I haven't tried it for myself (maybe someday I will). I'm not disregarding your opinion, Peter. Not necessarily even disagreeing with it. But I know of other oboists who have tried this sort of fix and felt their oboes never played the same afterward. And I'm not aware of anyone who's done any serious before vs. after acoustic analysis. Hence the word of caution in my previous post. "Proven process" implies some sort of hard data, or at least a consensus amongst professionals, which there isn't.
Cheers,
Drew
www.oboedrew.com
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
