Author: hautbois francais
Date: 2010-07-18 13:25
Here is a site:
http://www.alibaba.com/countrysearch/CN/oboe.html
However, you have to be in China to try them out. You'd better be able to speak the language too. If not, you'd find out that 99% of Chinese wont even try to communicate with you. They dont hold your credit card number, ship the oboe to you for a week's trial, dont like it, send back. Like it, keep it and they charge your card. This is NOT the Chinese modus operandi. Besides, you are just buying one.
However, there is a place in Hong Kong:
http://202.66.146.125/aboutus_6_1_5.php
They do carry some China made oboes. Hong Kong speaks English, but anything in HK is pricier.
As for the quality of Chinese oboes, I have only tried their top of the line rosewood made oboes and they werent bad. I didnt try any of their low end plastic or acrylic oboes, so I am not able to comment.
I notice you hail from Canada, I'd recommend you go with the known student brands that are out there and recommended by people on this board. At least, you will be working with "knowns", and if you need to service or fix things, most oboe shops in US will entertain without issues.
Cheap Chinese oboes, unless your daughter is able to make reeds to complement the oboe, she will sound terrible. It is very likely that she will get demoralized and give up. So, dont start her on the wrong foot. Instead, get her to love the sound and playing, by getting her something decent.
I started with a cheap used B&H when I was a kid. Bought, cheap reeds and had to live with this narly instrument and absolutely hated the sound, till my teacher at the ABRSM, loaned me a student LeBlanc. It was a grednanilla oboe and sounded half way decent. I actually sounded good. That kind step that my teacher extended towards me, inspired me to go on, to finish up my LRSM exam and have been playing the oboe ever since.
Making an oboe is very different from manufacturing a piano. The oboe is a finely tweaked instrument with very precision wood working and boring, precision machined metal keywork adding to the complexity. Factory made in quantities again will be different from hand made oboes. The piano is basically string based with felt hammers and the Chinese have been making their "yang qing"s and other stringed instruments for thousands of years. Their closest to a woodwind would be their flute, which is just hole bored into wood or bamboo. The oboe has precision keywork, so it is not a simple instrument to make. Yes, they can get a template and bore out all the oboes in huge quantities at their factories. As for Chinese hand made, they dont come close to the Laubins or even the Loree, Rigoutat or Marigaux. As far as sound and quality of tone, they probably can get as good as a Yamaha.
Anyway, here is my 2c "unbiased" comments about the Chinese oboe. And yes, with the USD/RMB = 6.77 exchange rate, the Chinese oboe is at least half the price compared to the known brands out there. I dont blame you for wanting to buy Chinese.
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
