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I tried to get my daughter interested in the tuba. Didn't work. She went for the oboe, and inherited her mother's wooden instrument. I don't remember the make offhand.

This forty year old oboe has suddenly started playing very flat. By "very" I mean a half-step. The local woodwind repair guy can't do anything with it.

Can anyone here suggest a really good oboe tech?

No better time to learn to transpose at the half step?

I'll pass that along, Bloke. That's some good stuff.

OTOH, her teacher, who has a small orchestral job and is pretty good, also thinks there is something physically wrong with the horn, perhaps related to an earlier repair. There are no leaks.

One other way to test the bad reed theory is to see if your daughter can change pitch drasticly by increasing pressure with the lips.

A very soft reed (either built that way on purpose or otherwise) can be pinched up to pitch. In this case, your daughter is using a reed that is too soft for her natural use. Where all reed instruments need some bottom lip support, pinching the reed to get the correct pitch should never happen.

And to add to the store bought problems, the length of the reed is not guaranteed. A difference of 1/8 to 1/4 inch is a drastic difference in the world of oboe.

a) a 40-year-old wood oboe is probably not doing her any good to start with. She'd be better off to get a brand-new Chinese one (tested by Bloke & co. and purchased from him, because of honesty of seller) and learn to play it, and then, after she has demonstrated two years from now that she is going to stay with it, just jump to a high level instrument. I've never seen any sense in in-between oboes. I struggled with an old Cabart for a few months and then jumped to my current Rigoutat pro level, and wish I had not waited, frankly. It was a lot of work for nothing on an instrument that could not be made to work well.

b) excellent oboe techs are just damn near impossible to find. I bought a 1970s Loree English horn that had been on consignment "forever" and had not sold. Well....when I got it, the lower joint notes warbled, fluttered, quacked, etc. My teacher is an EXCELLENT oboe tech, and a top-level (!) reed maker to boot. He spent an hour with that thing and got it to play unbelieveably well; it was mostly the top joint that was out of adjustment, and he implied that most techs would not know where to look to fix this kind of problem. He also said that he doubted it had ever been in adjustment during its entire life, which was indicated by the essentially brand-new condition of the instrument.

c) No, I don't think my teacher will fix this up; not an ancient 40-year old nondescript instrument. Not worth it, really. See a).

d) if the teacher can't get it up to pitch with the teacher's reed, yeah, sounds like something physical is off.

MA, who is venturing into the amateur orchestra oboe world this fall. Wish me luck.

Bump....how did this turn out?

MA

One of the finest oboe techs in the world used to live in Memphis - Alvin Swiney. I just found out he's in Richmond, VA, now. Look him up on Facebook.