 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: JRC
Date: 2013-11-27 14:31
My 60 year old Rigoutat has a 2nd octave F# and G problem; they are sharp most of the time and at times unstable with some reeds when I lip down to lower the pitch. I see this problem with most of the oboes I encountered, some worse than others. It usually is worse in winters.
Anyone has this same problem? Anyone had this problem fixed?
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Author: Wes
Date: 2013-11-28 05:40
Salvatore Spano, my late teacher, commented that this situation occurred on many older Lorees. His recommendation for stabilization was to add the low B key for G and he did that. I've not seen this on my two recent Lorees or a fine 1990 gold plated Rigotat I had. Perhaps they changed the bore recently.
It appears to be an acoustic resonance problem where the unfingered lower end of the instrument has a low-q resonance that amplifies or pulls the frequency of those notes, causing undesired effects. On both my English horns and my oboe d'amore, I've seen this same effect on G2 and Ab2, requiring adding some RH fingers to fix. The Eb2 also tends to be too loud on those instruments, requiring care in playing. Changing reeds or bocals doesn't seem to help.
One could call these "wolf notes", kind of similar to the F and F# notes on many fine cellos, caused by cello top or bottom body resonances, but fixable by various means. Good luck!
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Author: WoodwindOz
Date: 2013-11-28 09:10
Wes, if what you are saying is correct, would that imply that a change of bells may be an option to try?
Rachel
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Author: cjwright
Date: 2013-11-28 09:22
This problem is difficult to diagnose because so often it's caused by reeds, while at other times it can be a bell issue, or a bore issue. Do you play short or long scraped reeds? Have you experimented with putting a ring of tape in the bell at the bottom of the bell?
Blog, An Oboe In Paradise
Solo Oboe, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra
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Author: JRC
Date: 2013-11-28 14:42
Thank you for your insights.
My gut feeling is that this is caused by the age and changed physical dimension of the wood slightly. Perhaps the bore dimension is affected by it. If aging enlarged the bore, perhaps I may be out of luck. It would be more difficult to add wood than shaving it down. If aging shrunk the bore, maybe, maybe, there is a chance. I will have to find a really really good tech. Exceptional techs are too few and difficult to get to.
As Wes suggested, yes, I tried closing different holes in the lower part of the oboe to see if it would compensate for it. Some cases (different reeds, different room temperature and humidity) it helps but I do not think any of this would be desirable solution. And also, yes, I have been trying old oboes and both of my oboes are over 60 years old and still in "good" shape for their age.
As Cooper suggested, I also will look closely at what kind of reed does better. Perhaps some parts of reed (tube dimension and shape, length of reed, length of scrape...) would be more complementary to counteract the process of aging wood.
The best solution is to buy a new instrument. But I may have to mortgage the house to afford it, however. Beside, I am rather attached to my oboe.
I plan to take this problem to John Symer and see what he can do.
Please keep your thoughts coming. Thank you.
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Author: jhoyla
Date: 2013-11-28 15:14
This is a bit of a long shot.
Nick Deutsch (Prof. of Oboe in Leipzig, Germany) once gave us a two hour talk on reeds, cane and associated oboe stuff.
He mentioned that intonation problems in that range (1st octave key range) can be caused by using staples that are too wide in the throat - that is, they either have walls that are too thick or they slide a few mm. down the mandrel. I suggest you get hold of some Stevens No.1 or the equiv. Chiarugi staples (also No. 1, I think) and give them a try, before you start giving your oboe out for bore-adjustment.
I never buy less than 10 staples at a time - you need to tie on a bunch before you have a good seal and they vibrate well, and then you need to adjust the scrape and maybe your shape to compensate for the extra length (your normal "belly" will be further away from the top of the thread).
But even if you buy two dozen staples it is a fraction of what you will pay for a bore adjustment.
Peter Hurd on his website wrote a treatise on how oboes almost never "blow out". Unless your swab is made of some coarse cloth or your saliva is particularly active, I agree with him. Once the wood has settled (a year or two at most) it is unlikely to change significantly over time.
J.
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