When Stephen Hammer approached us, his goal was to make it easier for Baroque oboists to create and enjoy excellent reeds consistently. After carefully measuring reeds he uses for his own playing and applying a bit of high-tech machining magic, Westwind is now able to offer two Baroque oboe shaper tips — a narrow and wider edition — that represent shapes Steve has been carving by hand for years.

The Hammer #1 is of medium width and approximates the shape of one of Steve's finished reeds for the Joel Robinson Saxon model oboe. By contrast, the #2 tip is wider at the belly, allowing for adjusting after tying to balance the response between registers, following the practice that many hautboy players use for Saxon, Stanesby, Bradbury, Eichentopf, Schlegel, and other models. Both the #1 and #2 shapes measure 6.5mm at the tie point.

Westwind shaper tips—the best shapes made better. Unlike shaper tips made using traditional machining techniques, Westwind shaper tips use state of the art production techniques to ensure unsurpassed consistency, durability, and symmetry.

• Our precision production techniques ensure consistency. If you ever break or lose your tip, you can get another one exactly like it.
• Our tips are made of the highest-grade tool steel and the ears get a special treatment to improve durability. If your tip ever breaks, simply return it and we’ll send you a new one. No questions asked!  
• All of our shaper tips are perfectly symmetrical across the centerline in order to reduce the risk of leakage on one side of the reed.
• A 30-day trial is available for the Hammer #2 baroque oboe shaper tip.

 Learn

...more about
Westwind shaper tips

Hear 

...Stephen Hammer's
music at:
 

hautboy.org

About Stephen Hammer

Stephen Hammer has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a player, teacher, and designer of Baroque and classical oboes. He serves as principal oboist of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society, Concert Royal, the Bach Ensemble, and the Aston Magna festival, and has made nearly 200 recordings on the Decca L'Oiseau-lyre and other labels, including the Bach oboe concerti, many of the best-known Bach cantatas and oratorios, and Mozart's oboe quartet and complete music for Harmonie ensemble.

He teaches oboe, chamber music, and the rhetoric of Baroque performance at Bard College and the Longy School of Music, and has made significant contributions to the research and design of period oboe replicas--models developed for the instrument makers Joel Robinson and Jonathan Bosworth are used by prominent players around the world, and he has also designed staples for Baroque and classical oboes which are made by the Chiarugi firm.
 

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