I use to paly a yamaha oboe but the other day my annoying little brother broke one of my keys and ive taken it all over the place and they cant fix it so i went oboe shoping and found some strange brand ive never heard of called Barrington and i was kinda freaked out because it only cost $900 and i was afraid of the price although it looked like it would play okay. Have any of you people ever heard of this brand and should i buy it or just buy the 1.5k yamaha one. (im only a student)

Are you talking about the 801 oboe? I've never had any experience with this brand but I found some information and reviews about it here: http://www.wwbw.com/Barrington-Model-801-Oboe-i125666.music

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Otherwise I would recommend the Yamaha YOB441. I play on the plastic model of this and I'm really pleased with the sound of it! It is a more expensive than the barrington (about $2,348 for plastic $2,508 for grenadilla wood)and is an intermediate model, but will last longer than a student model. You can find information about it here: http://www.wwbw.com/Yamaha-YOB441-Series-Oboes-i126718.music

What major city/state are you near? Have you tried oboe specialty shops?

The Barrington oboe is unfortunately un-reliable. The springs eventually lose tension and you'll have a hard time finding a repair tech to fix them.

They do sound nice in the beginning... when the keys are functioning.

I am surprised that you cannot get the key repaired - a good repair guy should be able to do that. Ask around teachers & other oboists for the name of a good technician - many main street music stores can only deal with basic repairs but the real experts are quite often one man operations & can be hard to find. If that's not possible spares for most parts are listed by Yamaha but it might take a store some time to get it. You shouldn't have to junk the whole oboe because of one broken key.

I'd stick with Yamaha or other standard brand (Fox possibly)rather than one of the cheap Far Eastern made offerings (In private I would use rather stronger language!)

I ordered a Barrington 801 and should be getting it Wednesday. I have my fingers crossed hoping it lives up to the (mostly) positives reviews it has received.

I prefer the beginner Yamaha. Thats what I use for school, although I also have a beginner Selmer that I use at home. Im really pleased with the sound of the Yamaha and I think you should stick to the Yamaha. And as others have said, a good tech would be able to fix your key

Yamaha all the way.

http://oboeinsight.com/instruction/references-for-the-double-reed-player/oboe-repair-contact-list/

Here's a list of actual oboe repair people. They should be able to fix your key. I would suggest contacting the one nearest you.



p.s. Covey oboes is no longer in Atlanta, GA, as the list says. They've moved to Blairsville, GA.