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Re: Old oboes

Author: mschmidt
Date: 2019-06-01 02:54

This thread prodded me to do something I've been meaning to do for a while--try out a bunch of oboes, both new and used. I drove up to RDG Woodwinds in Hollywood yesterday and tried out 4 "just arrived this week" new Loree Royal model oboes and 6 used models. I had my tuner ready and watched it intensely on scale after scale, oboe after oboe. I couldn't make out a clear difference in the intonation of the used oboes vs. the new ones--the typical Loree problem notes (E & F on top of the treble clef) were pretty consistently troublesome on all the oboes. Some of the oboes were a little less stable in pitch with change in air pressure than others, but this did not seem to correlate with age. But then, age probably doesn't correlate strongly with hours played. One of the used oboes definitely was more resistant, but many others were not. The used oboes had serial numbers ranging from PGXX to TMXX. The new oboes were all U_XX.

One could certainly make a case for the idea that the new oboes would have played better after being broken in, but for me, there was no clear advantage for the new oboes, and the one I took home with me (after paying for it, of course) was a used one. It was one of the younger used ones, so maybe there is something to be said for oboes deteriorating with age. As a scientist, however, I do not feel as though I have sufficient empirical evidence to conclude that old oboes are to be avoided.

One additional data point--I took my old (NYXX) AK c+3 with me to compare. It was a little bit wilder in pitch and sagged a bit in pitch in some of the short-pipe notes, but it sounded to my ears as a rival to many of the Royals I compared it to. I'm used to compensating for the pitch problems on that instrument, and I might have a little more freedom in reedmaking with the more evenly-pitched Royal that I bought. I don't, however, anticipate any director or quartet-mate hearing me on my new instrument and saying--My Gosh! Did you get a new instrument? That sounds wonderful! (I am keeping the old AK because I still love it, flaws and all. Every oboe I played yesterday, including the one I bought, has some weaknesses.)

Mike

Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore

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Old oboes new

oboist2

2019-04-23 01:44