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Re: Why isn't the left C# key standard?

Author: Chris P
Date: 2017-02-19 11:04

heckelmaniac wrote:

> Another mechanism that is worth a look is the "automatic F"
> (E#).
> With "automatic F," the E# key is articulated and closes when
> the E key, D key, or the low C key is pressed down. Loree made
> some instruments (mostly automatic octave system) with an
> "automatic F," mostly from the early 1980s and into the 1990s.

I'd need to see a diagram or the actual keywork to fully understand how that works.

I've seen Ludwig Frank cors fitted with a closed F# key that opens when LH1 is held down - an easy thing to fit on cors by means of an arm soldered to the RH1 key barrel fitted with an adjusting screw that makes contact with the top side of F# pad cup. It's a feature of Viennese oboes and gives the Baroque/Classical venting of G, but they need a more elaborate system of linkages and levers to make it work. On most oboes fitted with a particularly heavily sprung F# key (to override the forked F vent spring) that may not be possible due to the relatively light springing of the RH1 fingerplate, unless both parts of the split RH3 D#-E trill ring and bush are sprung and can therefore fit a far lighter gauge spring on the F# key as a result.

As for the LH C# key, ask an oboe keywork mounter what it's like to fit a LH C# key and they'll probably tell you what a nightmare it is. And that's the usual long lever style one which isn't the most aesthetically pleasing lump of metal by any means.

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

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