Buffet English Horn Day 18 - 3/2/14

Today was supposed to be devoted to padding the lower joint, but I tried to do so much on the upper joint yesterday - facing tone holes, getting that last 1% of key fitting, trying to level pads to the highest possible tolerances, etc. - that I needed to spend today finishing the upper joint. I did finish padding, though, and after that spent a couple hours fussing with regulation and adjustment screws. Regulating an oboe or english horn can seem like an endless back and forth, especially when working with cork pads that are extremely unforgiving. When two cork pads are regulated to each other (or in the case of the the G key on an english horn, three pads), they will either close at exactly the same time, or be completely off. There's no middle ground like there can be with skin pads, so I spent a lot of time finding just the right spot on each regulation screw. Of course, as things settle in over the next few days, those regulations will have to be further adjusted. It's like chasing your own tail. Or at least that's what I imagine it's like. I've never chased my tail, and I'm beginning to suspect I don't even have one.

I don't even want to get in to this convoluted mechanism.

The difficulty of regulating was compounded by the ridiculous automatic octave mechanism on this instrument. It opens the correct octave key (upper or lower) regardless of which octave lever you press, which is surely a nice feature for someone who doesn't play oboe or english horn that much, like a doubler. But if you know how to use both levers interchangeably, there's really no reason to have such a complex mechanism. Unfortunately there's no way to disengage the it, so it has to be set up, which took a lot of time to get right. Incidentally, the upper octave key is regulated to the G key, so I just realized that what I typed above about the G key closing 3 different keys is wrong. It has to close four keys. There's so much spring tension in those four keys that the G key feels extremely heavy, no matter how lightly the springs are set. My plan in the near future is to make a new octave mechanism that will work manually, just like it does on any other double reed instrument.

In the end, all that fussing and fidgeting seems to have paid off. The upper joint is padded and regulated, and draws less than one on the magnehelic machine with light finger pressure. If that statement means nothing to you, don't worry about it. Here's a picture!