Thumb pressure relief for clarinetists and oboists. Tuesday, October 13, 2009
So a customer came in the store one day in early September and wanted to talk to us about a product that he had invented. This happens quite often here at Stanton’s and we try to listen and determine if it’s something that we think is significant enough to endorse and add to our product line. This particular customer was an oboist and he had mentioned that Bill Baker, who was the former oboe professor at Ohio State and a good friend of Stanton’s, thought this was an fantastic device. This gentleman had a new invention called the OCGenie for helping clarinetists and oboists relieve the stress that leads to sore thumbs. These musicians support the weight of their instruments on their thumbs, and if they play long gigs or practice for hours at a time, they often have to quit because of the tremendous pain that their thumb knuckles have to endure. Makes total sense, right. Well this musician/inventor came up with a new neck strap device that actually adjusts itself by using the weight of the instrument to take the pressure off of your thumb knuckle joint. Normally we don’t carry musical instrument accessories, but we felt that this might be something that we should look into for our customers who are doing a lot of playing. It attaches to your instrument using a thumbrest ring that attaches to your original thumbrest. The neckstrap itself winds back into its case when it’s not attached to an instrument–similar to a self-retracting dog leash that can be adjusted for different lengths. There is also a soprano sax version as well. A Stanton’s employee was actually using one even before we had heard of it and she absolutely loves it. This might be just what the doctor ordered, BEFORE you have to see him for tendonitis in your thumb!