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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000030.txt from 2008/02
From: "Lawrence Rhodes" <primobassoon@-----.net>
Subj: [DR-L] Reed making process. Was Re: Butterfield bassoon reed profiler
Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:51:11 -0500
Richard a great post on your process. I would like to post comments about
my process vs. yours, not as a competition but a different perspective.
From: Richard D Bush <rbushidioglot@-----.net>
Subject: Re: [DR-L] Re: Butterfield bassoon reed profiler
Message-Id: <B64C2056-5316-40DD-8C95-3F37A2A84E6E@-----.net>
I paid Jim $1,700 minus the $10 for the manual, which I had already
purchased from him. I thought the $1,700 spent was a bargain.
Indeed. A highspeed machine is more expensive but will profile no better.
However I use a propriatary eliptical system built into my profiler which
produces beautiful elipses across my reed. (my reeds on edge look like
crescent moons) It is no barrel copy & is adjustable in more than depth. I
may incorporate this into a single profiler to compete with designs like
Popkin that will outperform double barrel designs. But I digress.
I serioiusly doubt I will part with my Butterfield machine. I even do
a preliminary profile on my Reiger machine with the adjustments kept
thick, so that there is less ware and tear on the Butterfield when I
again profile to much closer tolerances.
Now that is a fine backup. However it is doutful you will ever wear out
your Butterfield. The only maintance is sharpening the blade & oiling.
All my reeds come from tubes. I use a Reiger cane splitter and an Abe
Weiss pregouger guillotine to start cane processing . I then sort for
straightness. Pieces that pass muster are then allowed to dry. If they
don't dry straight they're further rejected.
I built my own highspeed pregouger. It is called a hogger by Bob Stevens.
I split my cane in thirds and push it through the hogger 5 seconds per
piece. Any weak piece of cane will be gone after this robust process. No
sorting needed. Futher I only split cane for contrabassoon. All the busted
pieces become bassoon cane. I get a lot of bassoon cane this way. I use
3/4 inch cane to 1 1/8 inch more or less. Most cane under 1 inch diameter
will be bassoon cane but because of the nature of cane a tube split three
ways can yield cane of 3 different radius. The cane finds it's place
naturally. I try not to waste anything. I'm even thinking of arundo donax
coffee stiring sticks. Any one want a million of these? Otherwise it's
mulch.
When I have what I think is worth further effort, I leach this
remaining balance of the pre-gouged pieces. The water changes are done
maybe twice or three times a day for the first two or three days,
gradually reducing to once a day and then, finally, once every two or
three days. The whole leaching thing takes about three weeks.
Wow. I've never worried about this. I deal with the cane as is. My reeds
have a 1 1/8 blade & are .042" in the back. However I bet you get your
reeds to vibrate very well using this process.
Cain is then gouged and dried on black, anodized aluminum tubes that
have a 1" O.D. and are 6" in length. I have ten of these drying tubes
and can dry 40 pieces of cane at a time. I use the tubes to keep the
cane straight while it dries. (The cane is strapped four to a drying
tube with three large rubber bands.)
At this point my machines self reject any bent pieces.(more mulch)
Once quite dry (about two weeks of our very dry Utah summer) the cane
must pass screenings of both a hardness tester and a flexing test of a
'Flexter' machine built by Udo Heng of "Reeds'N Stuff" and originally
built by Jim Poe. See Jim's article, Cane Hardness and Flexibility:
Related Measurements Leading to Better Bassoon Reeds, which appeared
in The Double Reed, Vol. 26, No. 2.
I don't worry about hardness. I start off with a thicker reed that is not
as open as other styles of reed. To compensate for softer cane I open the
throat wires. This is a very reliable method to compensate for variations
in cane hardness.
While actual yields vary by cane source, my average yield is somewhere
around 30% of all cane splits. I consider the final GSP product to be
too valuable to sell commercially for all the above reasons and
because of all these mentioned cane processing steps. I will only go
through all of this for myself and my own reed making enterprise.
I have found that straight from nature to reed I get 80% of the cane into a
reed of some sort.
My reed blanks are then aged for a minimum of six weeks, but I really
like to let them age for a year. (Because of a recent illness, I'm
finishing reeds from blanks that were formed and wrapped two years
ago.) The reeds are killer good....at least I think so. Of the dozen I
managed to finish last week at the outset of my return to reed making
after a year's hiatus, I managed to get twelve reeds from a baker's
dozen (13).
When I get a reed order. I will make my run(40 to 100 in a week) I will
split, pregouge, shape, gouge & profile (all dry process) in one day. I
will spend the rest of the week making blanks, letting them sit overnight to
dry, reaming, then cutting off the tips & tip profiling. Then tested &
balanced. Dried & bottled. At this point from GSP to reed I'm almost 100%.
The only thing that stops a reed from being sent out is if it doesn't play.
My investment is huge, but so is my reed output. Being in control of
every step guarantees the quality of my reeds and, in spite of the
extra time it takes, actually saves me much time and frustration at
the end of the process when the aged blanks are opened and finished.
By then, the actual finishing is but a short walk in the park, free of
most frustration and represents an extraordinarilly high batting
average. Producing the whole enchilada is not practical for just one
person's personal reed needs. The only way I can justify the
investment is over the long hall and by making literally thousands of
reeds. At my age (65) it is a good, part time cottage business to be
in, but sure ain't a get-rich-quick scheme. It is strictly a labor of
love and also a way to give to my local bassoon playing community,
most of whom are residents of northern Utah and must find reeds that
play at 4,300 feet.
Sincerely yours,
Richard Bush
Richard your attention to detail is marvelous. However my style of reed (I
don't kow why) will play at altitude. I suspect the heavier more closed
style has something to do with it.(not that I know what style you use but
they sound great.) By the time I get the blank made my quality is also good
but I think it is from savaging the cane with my dry process up the the GSP
stage where the cane will be dampened. I use the same basic process on both
contra and bassoon reeds. I too make a modest income from reeds. I still
make more money as a player but in the last 10 years my playing has gotten
better & my jobs have shrunk. It seems younger players are more in demand.
I'm not fighting it. Even trying to play more contra doesn't help. Those
young players just buy a contra & become competiton. But I have learnd a
lot by making a lot of reeds, playing them on the job & I have cut out
excess steps in reed making to a point where I feel I have good
craftsmanship & quick manufacture. My reeds are used in the San Francisco
Symphony, opera & ballet. I will also teach my technique to all commers.
My style was taught to me by Rob Weir before he won the job in the San
Francisco Symphony as 2nd bassoon. I admired his control of the instrument,
knew it was the reed. I also had a Heckel instrument near his in number(mid
12,000) & soon gained all his control abilities after adopting his reed
style. I even was in the finals for his San Francisco job in 1992. A
testiment to that style of reed. However you still have to have the music
in you. I practiced hard & have played a few winning auditions since..
The reed just lets the sound out. Being able to do a pp stacatto up to high
c is no easy feat. A good reed is everything & every reed I send out I
could play on the job. However I don't cherry pick the good ones. I've
probably sent out better reeds than I play on. Thank you Richard for
inspiring me to write this. Lawrence Rhodes.....
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