The Oboe BBoard

The Oboe BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Re: The clear plastic oboes...

Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-03-29 04:15

I encountered a Chinese clear plastic oboe first hand the other day and have absolutely nothing good to say about it. This one I saw had the word 'Friendly' printed in gold on the bell - it was anything but friendly.

For a start, the keywork is very weak and bendy so adjustments are unreliable, the padding is reasonably good but there are some pads that aren't seated well.

Most importantly and most detrimental to them is the top joint bore is too wide being around 1mm wider at the very top than it should be (this one measured 4.9mm at the top instead of 3.9mm or narrower at the base of the reed socket), so the low notes are unstable and the upper register is wild.

I don't know how the bores are formed on these if they're reamed and polished (which is the usual way, but not very likely in this case) or more likely it's moulded along with the outer shape as it had a gloss finish that only moulding will give or hours of careful polishing could achieve (as I said, that's not very likely). Either way, the top joint bore is way too large rendering them unfit for purpose.

It was also semi automatic, so that's much better than their fully automatic ones as they haven't got the linkage from the G# key to the 8ve mechanism so it's the lower vent that's open when you play altissimo F with the fingering 8ve1 oxoG#|oxxEb. On oboes without this linkage, the upper 8ve vent will open instead and this will make the altissimo F unreliable.

AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE!

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

Post Edited (2016-03-29 04:23)

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics

Author

Date

The clear plastic oboes... new

newedit617

2014-06-07 06:39