Author: mschmidt
Date: 2011-06-05 21:07
> How can one explain the
> fact that people recognizing well seasoned and well played upon
> instruments from brand new or just reconditioned instruments?
As the resident skeptical scientist here, I have to ask--how well established is this fact? Do we have a well-controlled study of statistically significant number of observations, or do we have a few anecdotes? I can't hope for such a study being done, as it would probably require something like a dozen recently well-played instruments and a dozen rather unplayed instruments of the same make being evaluated "blind" by a talented musician. And you can't just go out and find instruments that have been played or not played, because their lack of being played may in fact be the result of them being inferior instruments to begin with.
When I bought my Marigaux years ago, I had on trial two used Marigauxs from Nora Post of almost exactly the same vintage. On one, the inscribed lettering was still bright with gold, but on the other, all that was left was uncolored indentations in the wood. I assumed the latter had been played more than the former, and it was by far the better oboe (and the one which I purchased). But it never crossed my mind that it was better because it had been played more--I assumed that the other had perhaps just been someone's spare instrument that didn't get much play because it wasn't such a great instrument!
So, really, if we want to establish this "fact" of oboe seasoning, we should get sets of pairwise matched instruments that are of essentially comparable quality as judged by oboe expert A, and then put one of each pair in storage for a year while the other gets played regularly. At the end of the year, have oboe expert A reevaluate them and see if there's a discernable difference.
Of course, before we do this experiment, we need to decide what constitutes "fair" storage conditions--what relative humidity, what temperature? Because we could certainly conceive of brutal storage conditions that would ruin any instrument.
When I have the results of this study before me I'll start thinking about answers to the question of how one can explain this "fact."
Mike
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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