Hello, i have been playing various stringed instruments for the past 10 years (guitar,violin, bass etc) and have recently started playing the oboe. i bought one 2nd hand off ebay. i started because ti was either oboe or cor anglais and the latter cost about £1500. Anyway, when i play middle C, it squeaks and sounds an octave higher than it should, but if i go down to mid C from the D above, it is normally ok. i have tried using both medium and medium soft reeds, and i find i prefer the medium softs, but also, are there any soft reeds available?

Hi there. A few things that you should check out first.

Number one,

Make sure that the oboe is sealing properly. To do that, take the top joint and close all of the keys with your left hand. Then cover the bottom with your right hand to create a seal.
Suck air in from the top and see if there is any air leaking. If it seems ok, go on to my step 2. If not, you may want to get a repair man to take a look at it.

Step 2

You need to make sure that your lips are not "strangaling" the reed. If the reed can`t vibrate well enough, then the low notes won`t play. Try working on lots of long tones. Pick a few notes and put your metronome to 60 and play each one for about 8-12 beats. Relax and open your mouth. Remember to let the reed vibrate. If you work on this, I guarantee that your low register will improve.

Good luck

well jim i think that u maybe should take it in 4 repair or else try wat joe said

i really think that you should take it in and have someone look at it. if it works well going from D to C, just not straight from C then it shouldn`t be that hard to fix. It probably won`t take very long either. Good luck!

Take it a repair man/woman and let them go through a whole checkup of the instrument. That`s the problem with ordering on EBAY because you can try the instrument out. Also, check the reeds because usually it is the reed or the instrument. If you have a crappy instrument and a good reed.....you aren`t going to sound that good and vice versa.