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Re: Fitting A LH C# Key...

Author: Chris P
Date: 2011-09-11 17:38
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It's all finished now (apart from being tidied up) and is working pretty well. Attached are four more photos of how it is until it's all papered up and plated. The bell key link has a cut-out in the bend so it can close the low B key (which took some doing to find the ideal point of contact, hence the amount of soldering work done to it where I've filled in the cut-out and started again!).

Due to the leverages, the action of the LH C# key is a bit on the heavy side, but I've seen where more leverage can be gained to make it lighter to use - the clutch can be moved higher up the joint and the D#-E trill linkage arm can have a bend so it runs around the RH3 fingerplate, then a longer rocker can be used so the linkage piece from the LH C# key can actuate it further away from the pillars.

Another possibility is to have the D#-E clutch mounted the oother way round and lower down (which will put it right by the banana key pillars) and have a longer linkage for the LH C# (about as long as a banana key) that arches over the D#-E linkage arm and actuated from the LH C# key barrel from higher up the lower joint.

Nothing is impossible and I might have another crack at it! Structurally there's no harm done and anything I have done so far can still be reversed. The only thing I have done to the instrument body is milling a slot under the low B linkage (as you'd have on d'amores and cors) so that can always be filled in easily enough.

The extra keywork has added noticeable weight as this oboe now balances differently - it's no longer top heavy which is something I like about kingwood oboes. The balance is more like a blackwood one now.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

Post Edited (2011-09-11 21:36)

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Fitting A LH C# Key... new

Chris P

2011-09-09 11:17