Hi! My son is going into high school next fall and will have to give back his school instrument and buy his own. We haven`t found anyone who can advise us on which oboe to buy, and there are SO many options. What do you think would be best for a high school player--plastic or wood, which options, which brands are best, etc.
Any advice you have would really be appreciated!

Hi Diane.

For truly excellent advice, check out the web pages of Martin Schuring of Arizona State University. The address for the page on choosing an instrument is www.public.asu.edu/~schuring/Oboe/instruments.html .

I hope this helps.

Bob

The best resource to purchase the oboe and to answer all of your oboe questions is to go to Nora Post, former oboist of the NY philarmonic. She has had nothing but a great reputation, and will only sell you the best possible oboe in your price range. My personal suggestion for a high school oboist is the Rigoutat RIEC oboe, it has all of the keywork of a professional oboe, with excellent action and beautiful refined tone. You can purchase it with a plastic top joint and wood bottom joint and bell, which virtually eliminates all of the concerns of cracking, while maintaining the beautiful sound wood produces. You can get Nora`s information at www.norapost.com

I bought a Rigoutat RIEC oboe for my daughter last summer from Nora Post, and she loved it!

it depends on the price range do you want to spend $1000 or $5000? one thing dont get a Rigoutat they are good oboes but have a lot of mechanical problems i know cuse that was my first type of oboe. for high school i would think about if hes going to play it just in high school or go into college and play. if hes just going to play in high school then you should look a a plastic oboe. if planning to move on to college then think about wood. for a good wood oboe look at the Lorée thats what i have they run about $5000 for a new one now. and for a good plastic oboe try a Fox they run about $1000-$2000 new. but if you plan on buying wooden used oboe make sure if it has a crack its repaired fully. and if you have a fear of a wooden oboe cracking most of the time when it does its no big deal..

I am also looking for an oboe now. I do not like the oboe at the local high school. I would suggest a buffet oboe. I know they are know for high quality. You can get a wooden oboe with all the extras for about $1,500.00 brand new. I am getting one now. I would suggest wood not plastic. The tone dosn`t even compare and I believe the wood has better response. This also has a one year warranty. I also is lined with a special resin to resist cracking and has the same bore as the profesional models. It is realy easy to get your money back by selling it because they don`t loose their value. I see this model for $3,000.00-$5,000.00 but with carful serching I have found it for the price listed at the top. If you want to know where to get this oboe please send me an e-mail because I need to look up the site. The shipping on this oboe to the U.S. is $40.00. It will be shipped from the Netherlands. If you do not know who Buffet is they are a French band instument company specializing in woodwinds especially clarinets and oboes. They are know for the beautiful tone and the eye catching silverwork on their instuments. The store I am speeking of has other oboes by Buffet for cheaper prices. These are student model and are still grenidilla wood. Feel free to e-mail me for more information.

I`m going to put a plug in for any rigoutat, riec or professional models depending on what level you are at, I personally play a rigoutat expression bore. Otherwise, for top of the line oboes, go with loree, rigoutat, laubin(6 year wait), marigaux, howarth, and maybe maybe fox renard or yamaha, buffet is not a good oboe, a terrific clarinet, but a terrible oboe.

One more thing, a rigoutat ( or any other good oboe) will only have mechanical problems if it isn`t properly maintained or from side effects of an ignorant owner, basically the same thing, a new rigoutat, or a used one that has been mantained yearly like oboes should be by a COMPETENT repair person will not have any more mechanical problems than any other good oboe.

Okay it makes me REALLY mad that someone would diss a rigoutat RIEC oboe, just because your oboe had mechanical problems (probably from bad care) doesn`t mean the instrument is bad! It is the top rated instrument in its price range because of its EASE of mechanisim and flowing sound! So it is crap that it has mechanical problems, its definetely not true... please don`t put down a brand until you do some research, which i have through several companies

Yea some of you guys need to read more I said they were good oboes but the mechanical problem I had was form the factory it was the improper placement of my A flat key. And don’t tell me to do research I had one, that was my first oboe and I took good care of it I had it service every 6 months and I oiled it ever month. Well I had to send the oboe back to the factory and they ended up replacing my A flat key and they had to drill new holes so they could move the key to a new resting place. Now I am not saying that all of them are bad I am just saying there not the best brand of oboe. And I am telling about my experience with that brand. We all have our opinions on what’s the best its like asking someone what their favorite color is not every one will pick the same color. ( o sorry it took me so long to reply to the insults but its clear that most oboe players cant read)

Its actually apparent you can`t read oboe4life, you said that rigoutat oboes have mechanical oboes, CLEARLY suggesting that all of them do. You in no way said that ONLY yours did. If you DO you research through MANY oboe companies you will find that Rigoutat RIEC is considerably the best Semi-professional oboe out there, hands down, proof shown. We are not insulting you, we are saying don`t diss an oboe just because you happened to have a bad experience with it, because obvioulsy many others VERY MUCH disagree, once again you said it as well "i`m just saying they are not the best brand" What research have you done to back up that statement? NONE, because if you would have you would find you are absolutely wrong.

Just FYI oboe4life, compares the sales of the Rigoutat RIEC to other brands... don`t even compare http://www.norapost.com/whatdid02.html

LOL!Serious jim riggs...dun do tat.....

well, oboe4life knows everything, and if you read what he says.....

LOL...yea...i read tat...