My mom is gonna be ticked... Okay, I own an oboe made in the 40's. not exactly in the best shape. Notes lower than low f natural go up an octave, my tone sounds funky, yadda, yadda, yadda. anyway, we had a student teacher who majored in oboe come in and see our band the other day. She wanted to take a looksee at my oboe, so she took it in the other room and messed with it a bit to see if she could fix it. I come to the band room at the end of the day to take my oboe home, and she gave me one that wasn't mine. She said my oboe needs to go to the shop. Oh boy, fun, fun. She said i had a bum spring, a bunch of pads that needed replaced (like, 15 she said), the crack in the back needed resealed, and a bunch of keys and pins were bent. Now, i need to know how much this is gonna cost so my mom can set aside some cash from her tax refund. Any estimates so I'm prepared when I get the official amount?

I recently spend almost a thousand dollars to have my 1970s oboe repaired ( a Marigaux); it hadn't been touched in thirty years; no cracks, but it needed all new pads and complete readjustments; some new springs etc; all in all a fair amount of work but if your oboe is that old I wouldn't spend anywhere near that much. I wouldn't have spent what I did but it had great sentimental value. And sounds great.

That's totally out of order to just take it away like that - does she think it's a school oboe rather than yours?

Maybe it does need all that work but it should only be done on your say-so. As the previous reply says it might not be worth spending that money on an old instrument.

Don't pay a penny.

If the student teacher or school wants to repair your oboe, fine. Although most schools might have a clause that requires you have an instrument in good working order to play in band it doesn't mean they can take YOUR instrument and repair it. And even if YOU said yes, you are not of legal age to enter into the contract with the adult.

Ask for a list of items that need repairing, an estimate for each of the repairs, and a listing of most important to least important. Wether you have the money or not, wether you are rich or poor it is not proper behavior for your instrument to be taken from you, repaired, and then you billed for the repairs.

Now, perhaps you won't be charged for the repairs. Perhaps the student teacher is also studying repair and has the tools and know how to do it themself. But you should have been told this. It is quite possible the repairs will be done gratis. So ask them tomorrow and make sure they know you do not want to invest money in this oboe at this time.

So, if it gets repaired for free great!. If not, hold your ground and tell them, "I'm sorry but my budget does not presently allow for repairs in the present economy".