Author: cjwright
Date: 2010-05-21 20:06
I think your main question boils down to not whether you want a Hiniker Cocobolo or Laubin Cocobolo or XL cocobolo, but just whether you want a cocobolo or not!
The only way to really to get your hands on some. I certainly wouldn't go ordering a Hiniker Cocobolo without getting a really good sense of Cocobolo and it's tendancies as it is. There's a good amount of XL Cocobolos out there, but very very few Laubin Cocobolo instruments as Al Laubin didn't make many, and I've heard Paul Laubin doesn't make them anymore.
The Hiniker is quite a covered instrument and has some dampening tendancies much like a Laubin. Personally, I would think that a Cocobolo Hiniker would be overkill. My friend Peter Hurd had a snakewood oboe made, the hardest kind of wood in the world (that sinks in water) and he says that it is the best Hiniker of all of Hinikers he has tried, because the hard wood gives it MORE projection and clarity, and counterbalances the dampening effect.
Last I spoke with Tom, he said he'd probably put sleeves in all of his Cocobolo instruments. Meanwhile, my friend Adam Shapiro's Cocobolo XL topjoint warped after 3 years (a year past the warranty) so badly that it played really shallow and flat. He sent the topjoint back to Howarth, who recycled the keys, and made a new topjoint with a liner in it and now he loves it as a solo instrument, but it's limited in projection and said he couldn't play it beyond a small chamber group.
Cooper
Blog, An Oboe In Paradise
Solo Oboe, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra
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