 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: huboboe
Date: 2012-05-29 20:15
Mark - I looked back through my records and found that I had measured and made the first prototypes of Bert Lucarelli's tip in Feb/March of 1991. This means if your teacher had bought her tip in the 80's it wouldn't be the tip I measured.
Bert's tips were made then by Freddy Pfeiffer, and his manufacturing techniques (and those of Bob Brannen and Gilbert's machinist, Ed Laker) involved grinding the profile in a setup much like a key copying machine at the hardware store.
The problem with grinding in general is it heats up and expands the work so that when it cools it is smaller than when it was ground. When you grind the profile, you introduce errors that are different from part to part, since they don't heat up the same each time.
When I measured for my Pfeiffer/Mack and Brannen X tips, I did 16 of the first and 13 of the second (I measured mine, my friends' and those of friends of friends). No two were alike and the spread between the widest and narrowest of each was considerable. I arrived at my numbers by putting each measurement into an Excel file, lining them up from widest to narrowest with the wrap point (arbitrarily my own, 5.1 mm) at the same level, then discarding the outside three from each side and averaging the middle to get a number I consider the middle of the bell curve. When measuring a tip to compare to my chart, find the place on the tip where the width is 5.1 mm and call that '0'. Then measure the points 5, 12 and 23 mm above that point to make the comparison.
My copy of Bert's tip is an exact copy of the tip I measured, as are all of my subsequent copies; I use wire EDM to cut the profile, an extremely accurate and reproducible process. Tips made 20 years ago and tips made today are exactly the same.
All of the Westwind tips have a black oxide coating with the type stamped just above the stem. If it's black with an 'L' on it, I made it. If not it's not a 'real' Lucarelli tip, 'cause I'm the only authorized manufacturer...
The M+ is in the same ballpark as the -1: it's an overall narrow tip. If you like the feel of wider throat in the bottom octave you might try a middle-of-the-road tip like the Brannen X or the Pfeiffer/Mack. There's less of a difference between the tip and throat, so you might get more even octaves.
Ultimately, as Drew says, it's all about what works, so keep trying.
And let me remind you that you are welcome to a 30 day trial on any tips in the Westwind catalog...
Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com
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mjfoboe |
2012-05-26 23:57 |
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DrewSorensenMusic |
2012-05-27 00:15 |
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mjfoboe |
2012-05-27 03:08 |
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Re: New Shaper Tip Try new |
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huboboe |
2012-05-29 20:15 |
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mjfoboe |
2012-05-30 00:44 |
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DrewSorensenMusic |
2012-05-27 11:41 |
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DrewSorensenMusic |
2012-05-29 23:24 |
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huboboe |
2012-05-31 05:30 |
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DrewSorensenMusic |
2012-05-31 14:05 |
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mjfoboe |
2012-05-31 17:17 |
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The Clarinet Pages
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