Reeds For Laubin Oboes

[@EllissDee4you4me]

I’ve played lots of oboes over the years but never had the opportunity to play a Laubin. I tell students looking to buy an instrument to play as many oboe as you can and ignore the brand, since all brands have duds and diamonds. When I bought my oboe ten years ago, I was at first shocked that out of the ten oboes I tried one of the lorees was an absolute gem. I totally expected to get something other than a loree, but it truly was an exceptional instrument and it’s still the best oboe I’ve ever played. I imagine a boutique company like laubin produces far more diamonds than duds, but every company makes the occasional perfect oboe, you just have to look for it. The way you describe your reedmaking sounds similar to what I’ve concluded after years of experimenting. Reeds need to vibrate fully from tip all the way through. A lot of students I see somehow learned that harder reeds are easier to intonate and have a more consistent tone so they play harder and harder reeds. This is true, but you have little control over your color or dynamics and you have to work so hard to make the Reed speak. I like softer reeds and am always trying to convert students to give up the popsicle reeds.

[@markn3586]

Thanks for your thoughts on this topic. I was wondering what makes the EV shaper tip well suited for a wide variety of reeds? I think the side profile of the reed you made is like the gold standard of what an American Long Scrape reed should look like. I think most reed makers struggle with making that subtle transition from the heart into the tip and probably tend more towards a cliff edge profile instead of a subtle slope as you demonstrated.