Klarinet Archive - Posting 000365.txt from 1995/12

From: Everett J Austin <BrendaA624@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: reed wizard and others
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 15:43:46 -0500

I inquired about the Reed Wizard a while back and got two replies, one from
Sacramento California (Abbott Goldberg) and one from Australia (Floyd
Williams), both positive. After speaking with Mr Armato as well, I bought
one from him (less than from a mail order house) after selling an old R-13
and have been quite pleased with it. There is a certain amount of trial and
error involved in using it at first, but now it seems quite efficient and
effective in balancing the reed by sanding the edges very precisely and
symmetrically, giving a reed that has the right general strength (it is not
for reed making). It really does work and save time for this basic function.
At first I thought it was psychological, since the amount of cane removed at
times seemed negligible, but repeated use indicates that not to be the case.
It was expensive, but I suspect as Floyd Williams said, "you can buy a lot of
bad reeds for that price" and at least this helps convert most all of them
into playable ones, as long as they are not defectively cut and their backs
are flat.

Everett Austin
Fairfax, California