 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: jhoyla
Date: 2008-11-10 05:28
In a recent thread, someone wrote:
"I took home and tried several different used horns of the same model, and they were both very different. The one I decided on is so responsive and a joy to play. My only complaint is the fuzziness of that darned C-sharp- a common complaint."
Well, it certainly IS a common complaint, and it should NOT be. AFAIK this is something that a professional oboe repairman should be able to fix. The secret is in the size and shape of the diamond-shaped inner hole of LH 1, the "half-hole" used for C-sharp through E-flat, 1st octave. On my ancient Marigaux-Strasser I inserted a tiny wedge of cork that did the trick beautifully (for some reason a repair person had reamed out the hole).
A good repair person in Jerusalem used a diamond-shaped awl to adjust the opening on my Loree, which sounded MUCH better afterwards - the difference was amazing. That's two out of two, but I am aware that this is not a statistical sample :-)
Thoughts?
J.
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Author: JRJINSA
Date: 2008-11-10 20:06
This was my exact complaint on my oboe, too. However, I find it interesting that when recorded, it doesn't sound fuzzy at all. A lot of that fuzzy sound is only noticable by me the player. Could that be the case with others too?
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2008-11-10 23:34
interesting
C# my Yamaha 441 no problem with fuzziness, tended to be too bright and also sharp if anything, but had assumed that was often grim-lipped me, or sharp old reeds -- but maybe not ...
the H.H. is a vertical slit that is shaped just like the aperture of a reed, curved each long side and open in the centre, pointed and closed on the top & bottom -- high D on up though, they're always very sharp on this oboe and quite whiny
as a comparison Bulgheroni's is just a medium-small round hole (occupies a fraction less than half the diameter of the HH well) and haven't found C# is fuzzier or brighter than D or Eb, and it's easier to lip high notes down to pitch than Yamaha
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Author: MDunn
Date: 2008-11-20 12:46
Hi-
I'm the one who complained about my fuzzy c-sharp on the Yamaha.
I took my oboe to my repair guy about straightening out some keys and brought up the issue with him. He said that you have to be careful about changing that diamond because it might make the very high notes really hard to speak. However, after hearing how fuzzy mine was, he tapped down on the metal a tiny bit to get it to expand and make the diamond minutely smaller, and it did help quite a bit.
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Author: hautbois
Date: 2008-11-20 13:27
When I played on a Loree, years ago, I also had the half-hole slit enlarged for the C# color, and found that, at least at the high altitude at which I live, I had to entirely lift the index finger of my left hand off of the half-hole key to play third octave D at forte. At piano it would play with the usual half-hole arrangement. I quickly accomodated to that change, and never had to think about it (until I changed oboes). At high altitude many such changes or adjustment problems are magnified.
Elizabeth
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Author: jhoyla
Date: 2008-11-22 20:57
Three out of three, my statistics are getting better ..
J.
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