Howarth S50C Professional Oboe

Howarth S50C Full Conservatory Professional Oboe
Made in England

The Howarth oboes are the current best offering for players & parents who are in need of a high quality oboe but need to be conscience of the price. Howarth oboes are manufactured in England using exceptionally well seasoned Grenadilla wood and are built with impeccable quality. The Howarth S50C is the single best value in the professional oboe market. Using a true Professional bore, this full conservatory oboe provides an unmatched blend of performance, value and quality.

Optional Bore Liner (“Velvet Throat”)
The Howarth S50C is made from a wonderfully seasoned Grenadilla wood that we find exceptionally reliable. Regardless of the quality of the wood or maintenance, there is always the risk of cracking. How you care for your oboe can greatly decrease the risk of cracking, but unfortunately cannot fully eliminate it.

To combat the risk of cracking, Howarth offers an optional bore liner in the upper section of the upper joint to greatly reduce the risk of cracking. They refer to this as a “Velvet Throat”. We highly recommend the lined joint, so much so that it is the only way we stock the S50C oboe! Below is a cross section of a Howarth upper joint with the Velvet Throat partial bore liner installed:

As you can see in the illustration, the liner does not go through the entire joint, but instead through the upper part of the joint. This is because the heavy majority of cracks occur in this section of the joint. With the liner installed, we have not seen a single on of the Howarth oboes crack to date! This does not mean that they cannot crack, but with this option installed, along with proper maintenance by the player, the oboe should provide the perfect combination of durability and tonal performance! Models with the bore liner are denoted with a “-VT” in the official part number for the oboe.

Mopane vs Grenadilla
The first question should be: “Why?”. Grenadilla has been a staple in the musical instrument manufacturing industry for centuries. Grenadilla offers great stability and density which makes it ideal for many industries including woodwind instruments. Unfortunately, Grenadilla is at risk of depletion due to its popularity in many industries. So in the past decade plus, the music industry has been searching for viable alternatives; not to replace Grenadilla, but to supplement it.

Mopane offers a similar density to Grenadilla, coming in at about 92% the overall density. This gives Mopane a similar stability which is vastly important on an oboe. It also has a stunning look more similar to Cocobolo or Rosewood. This beautiful wood is a cousin to Ironwood, which has also been used in the industry in the past.

In the end, the Mopane will provide a little warmer, and more focused tone. The Grenadilla will be a little brighter and more broad tone. The overall playability is similar, but with the Mopane possibly requiring a little more from the player, but this is a very small difference.

Professional Setup
Every Howarth S50C oboe we send out to a customer is not released from us unless it has been completely setup in our shop first. This is because the setup on any oboe is of the utmost importance! Sometimes, an instrument (regardless of who the manufacturer or the price point is) comes in needing 20 minutes of adjustments and then the very next one can require 2 hours!

This is why we perform our setup in our ProShop on your new Howarth S50C before delivering it to you. You trust us with your purchase and we want to make sure that you are rewarded by giving you your new oboe setup flawlessly!