So, this EH I’m interested in…

Monday July 30 2007

Certainly sounds interesting. Mr. Weber received it, and had to do some revamping on the instrument since it had gone all out of whack since the last time he tried it. While fixing it, the key even came off the hinge tubing! Imagine that? He said he soldered it back and it is stronger than ever now, but I was certainly surprised to hear that bit of information. He said it is a fine instrument, with this bit of warning.

 All aspects of the EH are really fine, as you are expecting.  However, any oboe or EH of an older vintage will show its age via metal fatigue – thus the EH being returned with keys & rods not where I had them before.  You, as an experienced player, will find no problem with this normal condition.

After my confusion about a “key breaking off”, Mr. Weber clarified.

No, the key did not break off.  When bending long keys, like the EH has several of, esp.  RH G#, that puts lots of pressure on the solder joint.  The joint itself let loose, where the touch piece was soldered onto the hinge tubing.  Not unusual, just a nuisance.  Even nearly new instruments can do this, just not often Loree’s.  Early Lorees, B series, were hand made.  Today, Alain de Gourdon has bought much new equipment, and he is thriving in the digital milling machine era.  His key mechanics are topped by none.  Earlier, in his father’s day, all was hand made, and even hand made by artists annd experts, sometimes the solder joints did not hold up forever.  We expect more recently.  Don’t worry about this solder joint.  However, any older horn will have metal fatigue and have had lots of stress from loving playing.

Quite an interesting bit of information. I didn’t know this about older horns.

Meanwhile, I will wait a month until I get to AZ to try out this horn. I’m very excited about the possibility of it being “the one”, as well as learning how to make shaper tips (I will copy Mr. Weber’s copy of Mr. Rosenblatt’s EH tip) and getting my Graf #2 fixed up.

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