Mueller Oboe Repair

05/24/2026

Tiny Oboe Shop

I've got almost 3 hours of repair videos on YouTube, for those who haven't seen them. These videos were produced by my then apprentice Justin Young, about 18 years ago. Grab some popcorn, and see the younger looking and sounding Larry Mueller. There are a total of 10 videos. Some of the many subjects covered are:

Adjustments
Disassembly and reassembly
Padding, pad adhesives and heat sources
Key heights
Oiling wood and keywork
Key polishing
Removing stuck swabs
Tenon corks
Boxing and shipping
Bent keys and hinge rods
Making a hinge rod
Taps and dies
The bench motor
Key swedging and lapping
Changing springs, spring pliers
Making and hardening a pivot reamer

For more advanced subjects like tone hole drilling and inserts, machining, crack pinning, key making, tuning, etc., you'll need to search through this page.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

05/23/2026

Tiny Oboe Shop repair syllabus that I've used with students.

OBOE REPAIR

Reed Well
removal
installation
modifications - sinking and inserts
make one

Stuck Swabs

Octave Vents
stuck vent removal
modifications

Crack Repair
pinning methods
graphite bands
tone hole inserts
materials
tooling
jig
positioning
reamers

Oboe Body
mildew issues
vinegar bath
cosmetic repairs, fillers, filing and sanding
bell rings

Padding/Tone Holes
hole leveling/shapes
pads - cork, synthetic, skin/leather
cork pad shaping
glue types

Springs
types
making flat springs

Corks
tenon corks
key corks - and other materials

Screws
rusted screw removal
drilling out adjustment and key assembly screws
breaking out screws
alum screw removal
making screws
using taps and dies
make a tap

Bent Keys and Hinge Tubing

Key Polishing/Buffing/Plating

Adjustments

Testing/Tuning and Bore Issues
tone hole shapes and modifications
bore shapes and modifications
bore measuring

Tool Making
bore and tone hole reamers
under-cutters
grinding
hardening and tempering

Bore Sleeves

Tenon Replacement

Socket Replacement

Key Making/Post Making
materials
jeweler's saws
adding posts
positioning/drilling/threading
drilling the posts and making the arbors
making the key pattern
soldering
plating

Machining
lathe and mill
speeds and feeds for different materials
cutter shapes - rakes and clearance angles
machine care
grinders

Send a message to learn more

05/22/2026

Basic plastic Yamaha oboe in the Tiny Oboe Shop

I added a left F, and did my usual tuning/voicing on this very basic model Yamaha. It serves me very well, for the occasional outdoor concert.

John Mack was always bothered by my lopsided embouchure. He would say, "You at least want to look like an oboe player, don't you?"🤨

05/22/2026

Removing a reed well in the Tiny Oboe Shop

You may have to remove a reed well, to do repairs to the top of the bore, or to add a bore sleeve. Or, the original well may be too large or small bored, to fit your staples or bocals. I've done this maybe a half-dozen times. This one was really in good, and takes 8 minutes. You could just watch the beginning and the end. I'm not very good at editing video.

Of course, never use this kind of heat around a plastic oboe. I suppose if you needed a well out of a plastic oboe, it would need to be cut out somehow. I've had to do this once, and set it up on a lathe.

05/22/2026

1970s Kreul oboe overhauled in the Tiny Oboe Shop

Each oboe is a bit different, but by now you can see a pattern to my tuning/voicing, even between diverse brands and models. Most of my oboes were quite out of tune when I acquired them, or went out of tune over time as I played them. Working for Peter Hurd has shown me that older instruments can be quite fine with a bit of re-working.

05/16/2026

The Tiny Oboe Shop

Fix low note response with a piece of packing tape?! Sure. The study of acoustics is weird.

Sorry I cut the top half of my head off!! I was trying to get the oboe in the picture.

05/15/2026

Hans Kreul oboe overhaul in the Tiny Oboe Shop

Hans Kreul oboes were made in Tubingen, Germany, from the 1950s through the early 1990s only. But, they were the largest producer of oboes in the world for a short time. Americans don't know of them so much, as they were imported under the name Mirafone, Miraphone, and Gordet in the U.S. They were plentiful around the California and Texas public schools mostly.

This 1960s Kreul oboe had a full overhaul, a short bore sleeve at the top to choke down the really oversized tone, a crack repair through the trills, and some tuning work (about a $1600 job in total). It's a much bigger, darker sound than my old Loree. To me, getting an oboe overhauled to where it seals and responds well is just the start. Then the fun begins, getting all the details of tone and tuning, exact spring tensions, etc. sorted out. I still have a short way to go with this one.

In hearing the playback, my slightly flabby pitched reed shows a little bit, but not too badly. Here's Henri Brod's 20 Studies, #1...

05/12/2026

The jeweler's saw in the Tiny Oboe Shop

The basics of using a jeweler's saw for instrument repair.

05/12/2026

Tuning in the Tiny Oboe Shop, pt. 5

The best 2 sources of info I've found for tuning oboes is what Paul Covey told me, "The placement of the tone hole along the length of the bore effects primarily the lower octave. The size of the hole effects primarily the upper octave." Also, the article by Hugh Cooper, Tuning and Voicing Double Reed Instruments, IDRS Journal, Vol. 33, #2. Hugh was a master at voicing bassoons. He imported Puchner bassoons and re-voiced them for sale. His article specifically addresses conical bored instruments, but the concepts seem to work well on cylindrical clarinet instruments as well.

I've got little experience trying to tune partials beyond the 2nd harmonic (high C # and D on oboe). High C # and D are effected in the same way as trying to keep octave F # and G from being sharp. Lowering sharp first octave notes seems to effect the 2nd partial in the same direction. Clarinet uses many higher partials than the oboe in it's fingerings above the staff, so someone else will need to study and experiment with that. Also, the shape of metal flute and sax tone holes, with their much thinner walls, leaves less room for adjustments. I also personally have no experience with reverse taper bored instruments, like some piccolos. So, there is a lot of experimenting yet to be done by the next generation of repairers. I'm retired!

05/12/2026

Tuning in the Tiny Oboe Shop, pt. 4

Top joint tuning:

Using reeds which are up to pitch, with enough definition between the tip and heart, is key to having 2nd octave key notes up to pitch. No amount of work adjusting the tone holes will solve a reed problem. I find tuning adjustments with the oboe itself to be less effective in general for the top joint, than tuning the bottom joint, but there is still quite a bit that can be done. I might put a little nail polish on the north side of a tone hole, especially down into the undercutting, if I should have a bit of sharpness within the staff. Mostly though, I'm concerned with flat second octave key notes. Using a tapered reamer to open the flare towards the opening helps some. Opening the choke area helps a lot, but it's quite easy to get a glare to the tone if overdone. Although difficult to reach and see, filling the undercutting on the south side (nodal point for the octave), can be quite effective in raising the left hand octaves. Raising key height can be very effective as well.

The only left hand note in the staff which tends to be consistently flat, is middle C. Undercutting on the north side, with a mini jeweler's file can help with this. Mini jeweler's files are cheap on Amazon or eBay, and are about 1/2 the size of regular jeweler's files.

Oboe tuning recap:

To raise a lower note, undercut the north side of the hole. You could also file the north side and fill the south side, effectively moving the hole up the oboe a bit.

To raise the left-hand octaves, ream with a tapered cutter, open the pad height, or painstakingly fill the undercutting on the south side only.

To lower a left-hand note in the staff, fill in the north side of the hole, especially in the undercutting.

To lower the right-hand octaves, fill the south side of the hole, but not down into the undercutting.

In these ways, you can keep your oboe playing in tune for many years, as the wood changes over time.

Sources:

Studies with oboe maker Paul Covey and oboist Mark Ackerman.
Experiments over 50 years on many oboes of my own.
Arthur Bonade: Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics.
Hugh Cooper and Mark Avery: Tuning and Voicing Double Reed Instruments, IDRS Journal, Vol 33, #2