How to Take Optimal Care of Your Oboe with an Oboe Insurance?

Being an oboist is not an easy task. You need to brush up your skills continuously to master those strange chords and all those quarter tones for improving your performance. But there is much more to it than just playing your oboe well. If you do not take the utmost care of your valuable instrument, your efforts will be at stake! Whether you are a professional musician or a small local band member, you just cannot ignore the health and safety of your instrument. It is essential to maintain and deal with your oboe carefully. At the same time, you also need to ensure complete financial protection for it with an all-encompassing oboe insurance policy. So here, we have come up with a brief guide to taking care of your oboe from all aspects.

How to Keep Your Oboe as Good as New?

Before safeguarding your oboe with a musical instrument insurance policy, let us learn a few ways to keep it looking and playing like new always. Here are some sure-fire tricks to give your instrument the best possible care:

1. Keep It Clean and Tidy

A tiny paintbrush is all you need to keep your oboe clean. Simply brush all the dust, dirt, and debris off its rods to guarantee the optimal functionality of the keys.

2. Oil the Key Mechanism

Dip the end of a feather into a tiny drop of organic almond oil and oil the bore. Doing it at least once a month will prolong the mechanical life of the instrument by preventing rust, corrosion, and cracks. However, make sure that you do not end up dripping oil into tone holes or onto pads.

3. Do Not Play a Cold Oboe

If your oboe is cold, wait for some time before you blow warm air through it so that it reaches the room temperature naturally. Playing a cold instrument will cause cracks in the spot between the tone holes, the area above the half hole, the top of the middle joint, and the top of the bell.

4. Use a Room Humidifier

Invest in a room humidifier to avert serious issues like bore shrinkage and cracks in your oboe. Cold weather and low humidity not only impact the performance of your instrument negatively but also steal years of its useful playing life. You can even consider purchasing a small case humidifier to humidify your instrument while it is in transit.

5. Polish the Plating Regularly

Get silver polishing cloth to keep the plating of your oboe intact. This helps get rid of darkness resulted from tarnish, pitting, and so on.

How to Insure Your Oboe for Extra Care?

Now, as you have learned to handle your beloved oboe the proper way, it is time to shield it financially for the future. Only customized oboe insurance can offer that much-needed ‘special care’ to your instrument. Just keep the following points in mind while insuring it:

• Find a reliable and customer-oriented policy provider that will understand the actual value of your oboe and provide it with all-round protection.

• Ensure that your chosen insurance company has wide-ranging programs with extensive coverage to accommodate all types of musicians.

• Go for stand-alone musical instrument insurance instead of an add-on that comes along with homeowners' insurance to enjoy greater benefits.

• Choose a good insurance plan, which covers the most common liabilities, such as theft, fire, flood, loss, accidental damage, repairing, etc.

• Try to get customized coverage that is exclusively developed to protect your oboe at the studio as well as while being played on-stage.

• Look for competitive premium rates, which will suit your pocket easily without compromising with your requirements.

As an oboist, you need to consider your oboe is your lifeline. Exposing it to any kind of risk can leave a void. Hence, maintain it well and partner with the right insurance company to gift it a long life.