 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: Loliver
Date: 2013-02-10 19:00
Hey all!
On Cor Anglais, how do you stop the top half of the left hand first finger plate from sticking? Its so bad at the moment that I cant do half-hole for and notes, making D#/Eb dreadful, and going from high B to C# or D sound quite painful. If I try to half hole, the top pad is stuck down so much that it falls the octave, and then it just unsticks randomly and then it jumps wildly. Also, on long notes, it will come unstuck randomly, so a note goes from intune to out of tune, and vice versa...
And rizla paper hasnt helped (cigarette paper)...and yes, I do always completely swab it out everytime.
Thanks all and apologies for the many, many Cor Anglais issues I've had...and cheers for always answering them
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Author: jhoyla
Date: 2013-02-10 19:37
I expect that it depends what the source of the problem is ..
If you use a lot of finger-pressure, you may have dug a little ring in the cork under the top half of the "half-hole" mechanism, and now it fits tightly over the half-hole "chimney" like a hat. You'll need the cork replaced to fix that.
If it is simply gooey stickiness, perhaps you can try graphite to smooth things over; blacken a piece of cigarette paper with a 2B pencil, then slide it back and forth between the two halves of the half-hole key to lightly coat with slippy graphite (worked once for me, many years ago). But again, the long-term solution may be to replace the cork.
Someone once suggested gasket material as a good replacement for bumper corks, but I'm not sure it will seal well with light finger pressure. Are there other, more suitable materials out there?
J.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2013-02-10 19:54
If you can take the split top plate off (undo the LH main action screw and pull it out far enough so just the split top plate can be removed), then do that and clean the top plate cork and lower plate with meths to degrease it.
If the cork is fairly thick, chances are the lower plate will cut into it over time and cause it to stick.
Gasket cork can be used provided the surface is perfectly smooth and there aren't any holes in it, but it will have to be the correct thickness so both plates are level and it seals against the lower plate with light finger pressure.
You can use a laminate of gasket cork topped with a thin layer of natural cork glued to it if the top plate cork is more than 0.5mm thick - that will offer more durability than natural cork on its own.
(I personally wouldn't use gasket cork as bumper corks on open standing keys due to how firm it is which can cause mechanical noise, but its best used for areas that experience hard wear such as under adjusting screws and other linkages)
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Loliver
Date: 2013-02-10 23:41
Ok, thanks for the advice.
It's not a gooey sticky situation, its made an impression in the cork, so I may have to take it to get looked at...hooray...atleast it should be free as its only 2 months old...
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