I just saw a “oboe for sale” entry at a photography site. It’s a Selmer oboe (ick!). They are asking $2800. Hmmm. Seems high, but maybe some Selmer’s are decent? I’ve not seen one that is, but that doesn’t really mean anything, right? The thing that really made me laugh was this:
It comes with a double case, several reeds, and a couple lesson books.
Would you want to play someone else’s who-knows-where-they’ve-been reeds? They might be wise to just nix the reeds, don’tcha think?
Or maybe I’m being silly. I’ve been that way before.
Someone told me once that Selmer used to be a top manufacturer for oboes… not the most reliable source and I didn’t really get a time frame of when this would have been. It seems like my brother the geek (love my brother. has read all sorts of things about saxophones and some things overlap :) ) has told me that selmer has dropped in quality over the years.
My perspective on what is “decent” is somewhat different than yours. I could pay about that much for a good student instrument and call it fair. I’m guessing most professionals would not be interested in that instrument, but if it were it would be priced somewhat higher. I mean, I’ve found in my own oboe shopping that I don’t really want anything less than 4k, which is too bad because I’m also shopping for a college and am not exactly rich, but oboes will do that. (heck, I’d love something a lot *more* than 4k, but as I said…)
I’ve never heard or seen a Selmer oboe I liked.
I’m not sure what you mean about “decent”, Miriam. Fill me in! (Remind me; where are you playing? Sorry … can’t remember all the folks who comment here so I’m not sure where you are coming from when it comes to the world of all things oboe.)