oboe update
I just realized that I never followed up about my oboe's repairs. I drove up to Peekskill, NY, where Laubin oboes are manufactured. There are only 2 high-end manufacturers of oboes in the world: Loree in Paris, which is a large-scale business, and Laubin in Peekskill. People tend to feel vehemently about which one is superior, though really they're both great, with different qualities (I love my Laubin, its tone is lovely and darker than Loree). I had no idea what to expect when I visited, though I knew it was a small-scale operation.
It was like visiting an ancient craftsman's workshop! Three guys in a big room on the second floor of a little brick building in the rolling hills north of NY. The eldest, in his 60s, is the son of the original Laubin, and he shares the work with his own son and another guy who apprenticed with them 20 years ago and never left. It takes them ~120 person-hours over 10 years to make one oboe! I saw the raw blocks of wood, and the wood-boring machine... Each key is individually manufactured, all the holes bored out, aging and tempering all along the way... It was absolutely incredible to see. And the results are beautiful.
They looked at the crack on my oboe and declared that they'd almost never seen one so long. !! :O( The basic fix is to put in pins and fill the crack, a fix which might last forever. If it were to open up again in the future, I'd need to have a sleeve put in the top joint, which would cost >$900. Let's hope that doesn't happen!
So I left it with them, and a month later they returned it. I'd asked for general maintenance work also, and it's like a whole new instrument! They fixed all sorts of little things I didn't even realize needed fixing, and you can't even see where the crack is, even though they put in 11 pins. And it plays so much more easily!! I can actually say that it was worth the $1000 I paid.
It was like visiting an ancient craftsman's workshop! Three guys in a big room on the second floor of a little brick building in the rolling hills north of NY. The eldest, in his 60s, is the son of the original Laubin, and he shares the work with his own son and another guy who apprenticed with them 20 years ago and never left. It takes them ~120 person-hours over 10 years to make one oboe! I saw the raw blocks of wood, and the wood-boring machine... Each key is individually manufactured, all the holes bored out, aging and tempering all along the way... It was absolutely incredible to see. And the results are beautiful.
They looked at the crack on my oboe and declared that they'd almost never seen one so long. !! :O( The basic fix is to put in pins and fill the crack, a fix which might last forever. If it were to open up again in the future, I'd need to have a sleeve put in the top joint, which would cost >$900. Let's hope that doesn't happen!
So I left it with them, and a month later they returned it. I'd asked for general maintenance work also, and it's like a whole new instrument! They fixed all sorts of little things I didn't even realize needed fixing, and you can't even see where the crack is, even though they put in 11 pins. And it plays so much more easily!! I can actually say that it was worth the $1000 I paid.