Here are a couple of the pictures I have been promising. There will be more to come on in-depth conversation about particular aspects of the instrument.
Hopefully you have been to Christopher Redgate’s website, http://21stcenturyoboe.com, and seen some of the information he has available there. He gives a very nice description of the background for the research and process of creating this instrument. You will notice a couple of differences in his oboe versus my oboe. His oboe is the English thumb-plate system and mine is the French conservatoire system. Therefore we have some minor differences but the overall functionality and sound should be the same.
Here is a picture of the top half of the top joint. This is where most of the significant changes have occurred. The hamburger key takes of the two exisiting trill keys and add a third key for additional micro tones and timbre options. This combines those tone holes into one. Also, one of the most dramatic things that I personally had to adjust to is the height of the second octave key. (It actually helped correct a tight hand position by forcing me to have a more open hand position to get up and over the key. Positive side effect!) There is also a locking mechanism that can adjust the height of the B key to allow for 4 positions for the B key, open, half-hole, locking mechanism on (roughly 3/4 closed), and closed.
On the lower joint the F# key is now two mechanisms. The top part of the key can be depressed to produce F 3/4 sharp. There is an added left hand C# key. And, the low B and B flat keys are no longer linked. Therefore you can play those keys separately.
More information to come in further posts that will dial into more specific information.