 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: nat1dbh
Date: 2006-02-09 17:11
Our 12 yr old son has been playing oboe in his middle school band for 5 months. We have been renting him a Selmer student model (we were told it's value was $1,550). In our ignorance, we thought this was a "good" instrument! After reading many posts on this site and doing a lot of on-line reading, we realize his oboe is bottom of the line. We are planning to purchase a better oboe and would like your input on how to select a quality instrument and possible recommendations from all of you. Are there certain models with better resale value? What are the pros and cons of wood over plastic resin for the young oboist?
Thank you :-)
Post Edited (2006-02-09 17:25)
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Author: d-oboe
Date: 2006-02-09 22:08
The MOST important thing to do is contact a professional oboist. They can best assess the quality of a given instrument. Even if you don't live in a major city where oboists live, it might be a worthwhile weekend trip. It's a major investment after all, and you want your money's worth.
It's really hard to give brands for the intermediate range instruments, because even between the same model, they can vary quite a bit. However, Buffet-Crampon, Fox-Renard, and Cabart (Loree's student model) are all very good choices. (There are others.)
In the long run, it's worth paying the extra money for these advanced-student level models, because they will let your son improve.
If you have the money, and your son shows dedication, you might even consider a used professional oboe. These are the top line instruments and are of best quality. I would say that 3500$CAD is a very reasonable price for a used one.
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Author: Dutchy
Date: 2006-02-09 22:32
Selmers aren't "bad" instruments; they're merely "adequate' instruments.
I too started out with a rental Selmer through the local "band instruments for all the local grade schools" store. I rented it for the 8 months it took me to figure out that the "oboe thing" wasn't going to go away. I figure that for the 8 months, I had spent about what it would have cost to buy a good used Selmer on eBay in the first place, so I liquidated it and moved up to a Fox 333.
The neat thing about rent-to-own instruments, especially for beginners, is that it gives you an "out" if the "oboe thing" doesn't "take". If it had turned out that the oboe was too hard or that I really didn't like it, I enjoyed having the freedom to simply take it back to the store and only be out the X number of months' rental I had spent.
So for a kid who's only been playing a few months, unless he's just totally absolutely in love with his oboe--plays it every waking moment, is already starting to make his own reeds--I wouldn't be too hasty to drop $2,000 on a nice move-up "real" oboe, even a plastic one. Mother of three here, and I'm woefully familiar with how the sudden passions of our offspring wax and wane, how the hobbies come and go.
I'd give him at least a year of playing the thing before I started looking at buying a move-up oboe for him, if he's not at the stage where he's totally obsessed by his oboe.
Also, a really nice oboe, even a plastic one, is going to run you (ball park figure) $2,000, and that's a lot of in$trument to ask a kid to be re$ponsible for. Trumpets, flutes, and clarinets routinely run only in the low hundreds, not in the thousands.
If you do decide to get him one, invest a bit in some basic theft-and-loss insurance from your friendly homeowner's insurance person, it usually runs about $30 a year. That way if he leaves it on a park bench and it disappears forever, it's not a crushing blow.
If you're looking at oboes for kids, plastic IMO is the way to go, as wood runs too much risk (again IMHO) of cracking, and is a lot less tolerant of the abuse that kids can give an instrument like leaving them overnight without swabbing out. There are some very nice plastic oboes out there; plastic is not intrinsically "bad", nor is wood intrinisically "good".
There are a LOT of oboes for sale on eBay, but unless you know what you're doing, I'd definitely go with a reputable dealer.
Kessler & Sons gave me a really good price on a brand-new Fox 333 (plastic) through their eBay store. They seem to have a bunch of them in stock.
Carriage returns added so word wrap doesn't disable.
http://stores.ebay.com/Kessler-and-Sons-Music
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2006-02-09 23:30
My parents, who were definitely NOT wealthy, thought it was ok that I wanted to learn to play oboe because they understood that you could borrow them from the school system. (This was the early seventies, before tax revolts sucked any non-essential resources from the schools.) I borrowed the Blevins Jr. High oboe for about a year and a half. In that time my oboe teacher (who was also the orchestra director at Blevins, and a darn good oboist) had the instrument sent away to Neilsen to see if anything could be done to improve its abyssmal playing. During that time the band director lent me his Kreul (he was a woodwind player, primary instrument clarinet), which was wonderful. When the lousy "student oboe" came back from Neilson without much improvement, my oboe teacher (the orchestra director--are you keeping track?) nagged my parents into buying a wood Prestini which he personally selected. That instrument was my sole instrument until one month ago. I talked with Peter Hurd (see one of ohsuzan's links, above) and he had fine things to say about Prestini; he didn't think there were ever "student" model Prestinis. He thought that, with an overhaul to make it seal up better, the Prestini may still turn out to be a good adult instrument.
What's the point of this? Well, my band director trusted me with his pro-model Kreul for two weeks. My oboe teacher found me a good deal on a good instrument. Nobody said "he's just a kid, let's buy him plastic." I had been playing for a year and a half, I had begun to make my own reeds, and I was 13 years old. Whether you're going to trust a kid with a $2000 or $3000 instrument probably depends on the kid. But if the kid has potential, isn't flighty, and seems to honestly like the oboe, I can't think of a better thing to do for him than to get him a good oboe that can help him sound good. And count on spending a bit of money to maintain it--I think I could have improved a lot faster if I had my Prestini overhauled to eliminate leaks back when I was in high school.
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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Author: oboeblank
Date: 2006-02-09 23:56
I would suggest the Fox 300. They are slightly more expensive than most beginner and intermediate oboes, but they have all of the features common to top of the line oboes such as all trills, split D, forked F vent and Left F. They also sound quite nice for a plastic instrument, which is indestructible!
Again the money output may be more, but his frustration level will be less, which means he may improve quicker-more music for your buck!
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Author: my58vw
Date: 2006-02-09 23:57
Very good information above, A+!
I have played the majority of instruments over the years, including flute, clarinet, trombone, euhonium, etc. I picked up oboe as an "adult" - 23 years old. I started on a crapy larilee oboe that was cracked right up by the bore. After about 2 months I was already playing with 2 groups, to add a third a few weeks. I decieded that since I absolutly fell in love with the instrument I would buy the best I could afford, and ended up buying a buffet greenline (yes 5300 dollars). Now why I would never expect a student under maybe junior year (11th grade) in high school to have one. What it says that if your child demonstarates they are truly serious then think about getting him maybe an intermediate model (I like the fox full conserv resonite model).
BTW I was adjusting reeds after 3 months, and after 4 I was making my own reeds.
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Author: oboemelli
Date: 2006-02-10 16:19
When I first started to play the oboe, I too rented a Selmer plastic resin student oboe, a 'Bundy' model.
I would suggest that you should buy a good instrument well suited for a learning student, but can take him far through grades. Take a Howarth S20 oboe, for example. There are lots of extra keys, it is wooden, and probably a lot heavier which can be daunting, but this type of oboe (student/intermediate) can bring your son right up to diploma standard.
Then you may consider buying him a semi-pro/graduate or pro oboe if he still wants to carry on with the instrument. The Howarth is easy to play and produces a lovely tone, with stable intonation (tuning) and a wide range of dynamics are possible.
I feel that wood oboes are much better than those that are made out of plastic. They produce a sweeter, much nicer sound and often you can play both quieter and louder on them. The problem with this, however, is that they can crack, particularly in the top joint, but your local music shop that deals with woodwind instruments can deal with it easily and quickly and it can be avoided if your son is cautious about excessive temperatures and about cleaning the oboe suffienciently after EVERY time he plays. The Howarth should sell well again at a reasonable price if it is well maintained in its new condition; lucky this model is particularly robust for an oboe!
Good luck,
Melanie
"People imagine they can reach one another. In reality they only pass each other by"- Schubert.
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