Howarth S40C Mopane Wood Oboe

Howarth S40C Mopane Wood Oboe
Our Best Selling Oboe Series!

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 London using exceptionally well seasoned woods and are built with impeccable quality. Expanding on this amazing instrument’s offering, Howarth is now offering the S40C in Mopane Wood. This wood offers a different aesthetic and tonal characteristic compared to traditional Grenadilla. The Howarth S40C Mopane oboe is truly a stunning look and performance.

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 possessing a hair more resistance, but as it is combined with the easy and free-blowing nature of the Howarth S40C design, this is a very small difference.

Standard – Bore Liner (“Velvet Throat”)
The Howarth S40C Mopane Wood Oboe is made from a wonderfully seasoned woods. However due to the very unique cosmetic look of Mopane, a crack and subsequent repaired crack would leave a permanent cosmetic scar on the wood, where Grenadilla crack repairs are less dramatic in their finished appearance.  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.

So in order to combat the risk of cracking, the Howarth S40C Mopane Wood oboe is only available with a 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 on ANY oboe, but on the Howarth S40C Mopane, there is no option as the oboe is only offered with the liner. 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.

Professional Setup
Every Howarth S40C 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 S40C 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!

Multiple Financing Options Available!

We have a myriad of different financing options available for your new instrument! From affordable monthly payments over a longer period of time to other options that can include 0% Interest or Deferred Interest options, we can help find a way to make the instrument of your dreams become the instrument of your reality! Give us a call!