A friend of mine was recently given an older Loree Oboe by a client of his. Why I don`t know, he doesn`t play any instruments at all and can`t read music. He handed it to me and asked if I could find out about it.

I`m a flute player and know nothing about oboes. I had a bassoonist friend of mine look at it and he says it looks like it could be one of their professional models. He said it had a lot of the extra keys a pro model would have. Any idea where I can get a serial number search and possibly a ball park as to value? So far all I`ve been able to make out is AY8 (at least thats what it looks like) on one of the sections.

Any help pointing me in the right direction would be helpful. I`d like to get this info BEFORE I take it to the repair shop. Believe me, it needs it. Probably hasn`t been played in over 20 or 30 years. If it is valuable I`d like to get it fixed up and possibly sell it and give the money back to my friend.