If you are reading this article, you are familiar with musical instruments, and you should be aware of the woodwind category, which oboes belong to. We will help you to choose the best oboe and help with all the issues of your interest. Just by the fact that wind is mentioned, you can tell this instrument is played by blowing into one end. Its general design usually involves a hollow, slender body with holes punctured into the sides. These holes are covered by keys that help to control the sound output, tones, and musical keys.
However, this is not uniform for all woodwind devices. Some leave their holes completely open, and people play them by covering and uncovering the gaps with their fingers as they blow. An illustrative example presents itself in a flute.
Oboes belong to a group of woodwind instruments of the double reed variation. Where a single reed is concerned, one piece of cane is positioned near the mouthpiece, and thus it vibrates when you blow into the instrument.
Mouthpieces, of course, come in all variations with some being made of metal, resin, and even hardened rubber. As depicted in the name, a double-reed instrument would have two canes positioned close to the mouthpiece. With one end being the mouthpiece or staple the opposite end of the oboe is known as a bell, which is where sound exits the oboe.
Bells come in all shapes and sizes. Also, the upper and lower joints run the length of the oboe connecting the staple to the bell and are characterized by a conical bore giving the instrument its distinctive sound.
Both the upper and lower joints are punctuated by tone keys that control a system of rods that lines the oboe. Each time a key is pressed, a rod turns and covers or opens up a tone hole resulting in a particular musical key. Also as part of the finger keys, there are the first and second-octave keys mostly situated on the upper joint, and they serve the purpose of allowing an oboe player to produce higher octave tones without changing the fingering.
So much goes into making the perfect oboe, and that includes materials, springs, and other component features. Also, while in the past, almost all oboes had wooden construction, some modern ones are made of plastic to avoid cracking or breaking. Also, there are various variations of wood that can be used to craft the oboe. Some questions you need to ask yourself are as follows: What makes up the mouthpiece? How does the construction material affect the sound? What makes up the spring system that controls the rod? A seasoned oboe player will know how each element affects his ability to play the instrument. However, for a newbie, there are some of the considerations you need to consider before coming up with a list of oboes that you can purchase. We have done most of that work for you, and have a few recommendations.
Below you will find a comparison table with the list of best oboes on the market. Then, you will be able to look through all the products specifically, described in in-depth reviews where all the unique features are mentioned. Coming up with such in-depth information about each product can only be as a result of countless hours of research that involves going onto manufacturers’ sites, reading through features listed, going through customers’ reviews and comparing how each of these instruments performs in real life. The result of the job done you may find in our ultimate buying guide.