makes ya wonder about the barkeep’
Speaking of riff raff…
As I recall, there was such a thing as synthetic reeds for single reed instruments, mass manufactured and thereby eliminating a great deal of reed making effort.
Have you heard of any such thing, for an oboe?
Yeah they make them.
Sacrilege. 
(I’ve never heard one but have been told that they don’t compare to the real thing)
They may be popular with some of the riff raff.
lol…Years ago I’d heard that synthetic reeds just weren’t up to par, in the opinion of many players, and hence my reference to riff raff.
However, I was wondering if any substantive improvements had been made since then, but apparently not.
The key to getting Oboes to sound, your saliva must become one with the reed.
There was an Oboe player that went to the grocery store and remembered that he left his Oboe in the car unlocked. He immediately rushed out of the store back to his car to discover that someone have gotten into his car. Yep, now there are two Oboes in the car.
Hahaha!
That reminds me of viola jokes, but perhaps such jokes could wander too far off topic.
perhaps so…might I suggest some of the I Spy, English Horn jokes?
Oboes & english horns ( Cor Anglais in the biz…) are actually the same size.
It’s just that oboists heads are bigger.
synthetic reeds - haven’t tried one recently but they were terrible.
What was not clear was whether the material was not suitable or whether the folks making them didn’t have a clue. You could only buy them completely made and they had been scraped to far to fix.
I once had a friend in the chemical industry, worked for DuPont at one point in her life,
told me that it’s well within reach of current tech to come up with synthetic raw material (all made from recycled materials) with the same vascular (cellular?) structure as cane, ebony, ivory, etc.: all the musical ‘stuff’. Problem is; funding outweighed profit last time they looked at it, and it was tabled.
yeh them plastic oboe reeds $uck. yeech. 
Of course at least you know that the next time you play that plastic reed that it will work !!!
Bill - who has never owned a plastic reed, not even for back up
I’m resting my mouth -practicing scales and intervals in thirds. That’s the most frustrating thing for me, that I want to keep practicing but the old mouth just can’t do but so much. I keep plugging away until it becomes a hopeless blob and I’m forced to quit for the night. 
Anyone ready to try this thing out?!
http://www.guntramwolf.de/englisch/start_englisch.html
looks like one of Beethoven’s ear trumpets…
My teacher brought her copy of that Vade-Mecum book to my lesson tonight.
I need an oboe stand.
Any recommendations?
Actually, I also need a reed knife, etc. too
Help.
K&M
I wouldnt get the cheesy 2 piece plastic fold-up kind.
Get one that has a screw-on peg and four feet, if it’s in the budget.
knife? Doube hollow ground only. Vitry. Herder.
Rigotti beveled edge knifes are good for the rough stuff, (shaping, etc) but you’ll need a double hollow ground for everything impotrant. Ive found Vitry’s easyist to sharpen, (You’ll need a double india stone for that , btw)
Thanks. Now I’ll start off my search for those. 
done. I found the Herder and Vitry!
question- Do I need a Rigotti too for the “rough stuff”?
well that depends…one can do the whole sad routine on a d.h.g. knife no problem, but ive found those bevel edge knifes make life easier for operations like easel work, removing cane bark, scoring cane, shaping, rough profiling, cutting the tip open, cutting string…then pick up the dhg to carve the actual lay with all its details, and the fine tuning, especially anything near the tip..
There’s more sharpening involved using only a dhg blade, and it wears down the knife a lot faster too.
Some people prefer bevels from start to finish…reeds i made doing it that way never seemed to last.