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Re: my new oboe! need more info on it

Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-06-29 19:36

Only some oboes are painted to make them look uniformly black (as on Lark oboes and also the Scheiber-built student Buffets) - most makers will either polish the wood on a buffing machine (with calico mops spinning at high speed and polish compound applied to the mps, then a softer mop with no polish is used to shine it and a swansdown mop to get a high gloss polished finish), or leave them dull.

"I can only surmise that the difference between the oboe and a string instrument is (1) the warm breath flowing down the bore of an oboe and (2) the difference in temperature of the breath and the temperature on the outside surface of the instrument; these can't be an issue with string instruments."

That's pretty much it. All wooden instruments are affected by humidity, but in woodwind instruments the bore receives more heat and moisture and the inside will expand more than the outside which can cause cracks in the worst cases doe to the stress of the inner wood expanding at a faster rate than the outside. Stringed instruments are also affected by humidity, but it's more evenly distributed - as well as the thickness of wood being significantly thinner on stringed instruments than it is on woodwinds.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010

Independent Woodwind Repair Specialist
Oboes, Clarinets and Saxes
NOT A MEMBER OF N.A.M.I.R.

The opinions I express are my own.

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