Klarinet Archive - Posting 000296.txt from 1996/10

From: Donald Yungkurth <DYungkurth@-----.com>
Subj: Reed Conditioning (was "reed water") - Long!
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 17:57:34 -0400

Bill Fogle has written about reed life problems and the apparent futility of
getting a good reed to last and wonders if he should just go to using newish
reeds all the time. Karl Krelove has relayed some of his suggestions to
improve reed life. In particular, Karl expressed the view that reeds should
not be dried against a flat surface. I agree - this is critical.

In reading Klarinet for a couple of years, it seems that we fall into two
groups; those who can't be bothered with reed conditioning and adjustment and
those who *must* do these things. If there is a middle group, it is made up
of those who want to condition and adjust, but haven't gotten "the method".

I clearly fall into the group who condition and adjust (in that order) and
feel strongly that this helps me to find the really good reeds and to
stabilize them against rapid change and essentially eliminate warping
problems. You out-of-the-box players should stop reading *now*.

Since reeds are stored dry and played in the wet state, they *must* be
conditioned to change as little as possible with repeated changes from wet to
dry. A brief outline of a procedure follows:

1. Obtain a piece of plate glass (about 10 or 12 inches square is a good
size) and some 600 grit wet or dry sandpaper.

2. Day #1 - Soak a batch of reeds (4 to 6, perhaps) in water for ten minutes
or so. Play on each for a minute or two. Place the reeds on the glass to
dry, BARK SIDE DOWN.

3. Day #2 - Repeat soak/play/dry as on day #1, but play each reed a bit
longer - maybe five minutes.

4. Day #3 - Soak and play as on days 1 and 2. Polish the flat side (table)
of each reed. This is done by placing the sandpaper, ABRASIVE SIDE DOWN, on
the plate glass and gently rubbing the reed against the BACK of the
sandpaper.
To do this without damaging the reed, hold the sandpaper down with one hand
to keep it flat and use three fingers of the other hand to move the wet reed
back and forth. The fingers must be wet to provide the friction necessary to
slide the reed. Two fingers should be on the bark and one on the vamp (the
shaped area). Do not put a finger directly on the tip of the reed. This
skill is probably best learned with old reeds, since it is pretty easy to
damage the tip. After polishing, look at the back side of the reed - It will
appear shiny, either overall or in spots. In any case, it will probably play
better than before polishing. Dry reeds as before, bark side down.

5. Day #4 - Soak reeds, play them for a few minutes, polish them and inspect
them for uniformity of polish. Don't be concerned about the tip - it
probably won't be polished since not much pressure is applied directly to the
tip. If some areas are not shiny, sand the reed, as in polishing, using the
abrasive side of the 600 grit wet or dry paper. Alternate the polishing and
sanding until the reed table is uniformly shiny, again with the exception of
the tip. Since little material is removed by the 600 paper and the tip isn't
being thinned, this doesn't affect the strength of the reed significantly.

6. The conditioned reeds should now be stable. Going through normal wet and
dry cycling should not cause warping, but this is easily checked by polishing
and corrected, if necessary, by sanding.

7. Do not ajust reeds until the conditioning procees is finished!

I don't have any hard evidence, but I feel that reeds like V12s and Zondas
(or others with thicker cane) will tend to stabilize easier than thinner
reeds. My Eb reeds seem to take more cycles to stabilize than Bb reeds. I
have no experience with larger reeds, such as for bass clarinet or sax.

Reeds prepared in this way should be far more stable and play for
considerably longer before going soft. Any time a previously OK reed seems
to perform badly, polish the table - that is often enough to bring it back to
expectations. If polishing doesn't restore it, give it a light sanding.

The sanding and polishing procedure serves two purposes, to flatten the reed
table so it will conform to the mouthpiece without being distorted when the
ligature is tightened and to seal the reed. The other cut surfaces of the
reed (the vamp and the edges) should also be polished to seal them. The
edges can polished against the back of the sandpaper on the plate glass. The
vamp should be polished by placing the reed table against the plate glass and
polishing with a small piece of sandpaper, working toward the tip only, to
avoid damage.

I store the reeds I'm currently using in Vandoren cases. These have grooves
in the flat surface against the reed. With conditioned reeds, I have
essentially no warpage problems. Occasionally a reed that has become very
dry will show some "ripple" at the tip, but these will typically flatten out
when thoroughly wetted. Reeds in process or extras are left on a piece of
plate glass, open to the air, bark side down.

I'm certainly not playing forty hours a week and don't keep track of playing
time per reed, but I have reeds conditioned as above that have been in and
out of use over a period of at least 2-1/2 years and are still doing just
fine.

Don Yungkurth (DYungkurth@-----.com)