Klarinet Archive - Posting 000334.txt from 1995/09

From: Rich Copeland <RichC611@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Reeds... -Reply
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 1995 19:35:46 -0400

About a year and a half ago, a friend gave me a Fibracell
"artificial" reed, which I very reluctantly agreed to "just try out".
It was love at first sight! I played the thing exclusively until it
wore out (about 4-5 months at my rate of use). I then plunked
down $9 for another one, and have been using them ever since.

My experience has been a reduction in tone quality, but very
slight. I have had many "real" reeds which produced worse.
(I had been using Mitchell Lurie No. 3 or 3 1/2's, and when the
most-convenient music store went out of business, I switched
to Rico Royals. I always selected 3 or 4 individual reeds at
purchase, never just grabbed a boxful "blind". This leads me
to think that I was already picking reeds which were basically
good.) I, like Larry Liberson, never intend to play an audition
again. But in my case, I'm willing to sacrifice a little tone quality
in exchange for convenience.

The slight reduction in quality, in my opinion, is made up for
by the incredible standardization (that's not really the word I
want, but cannot currently think of a better one) of the Fibracells.
I have not found any noticable difference between any two reeds
that I've used. Also, I can now play the altissimo register more
softly than ever before. Previously, I could never successfully
make a pianissimo (or softer) entrance in the altissimo, but it has
become easy with these reeds. Of course, I'm very happy to
be rid of all the sanding, shaving, snipping, etc.

Now I admit that the clarinet has become just a "hobby". If I
were in any way trying to make a living with it, I would go for
the perfect tone which one gets when one has the occasional
perfect reed. But I'm quite happy with my Fibracells. Go ahead
and flame me, but do it quickly(or privately), as I will off the list for two
weeks starting Friday night.

   
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