Klarinet Archive - Posting 000727.txt from 1996/10

From: Ward Cheney <cheney@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Reed adjustment
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 19:50:51 -0500

Luuk van Buul has written as follows:
>
> On Sat, 26 Oct 1996 Deborah ('Robert D. Shaw' ??) wrote:
> > Can anyone give me some advice on reed adjustment? It seems that lately
> > anything that I do to my reeds produces a "tinny" sound or a slight
> > whistling sound. Most people do not notice this, but it is quite
> > disturbing to me.
> > I have been using vandoran v-12 #4 since v-12's came out, but
> > lately they haven't sounded the same.I have tried regular vandorans, but
> > they don't seem to be the solution. I have also tried Queen reeds lately
> > because I used them in college, but they are so hard. My dilemma is
> > that I can't get the dark sound that I used to get and still have
> > flexibility in my playing.
> > SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!
> >
> > Deborah
> >
>
> This sounds like the problem I had about a year ago. It appeared that my
> sound had somehow 'degenerated' and whatever I tried, I couldn't get my old
> sound back. This became apparent in only some weeks time. Firstly, I blamed
the
> reeds, too. But _suddenly no good reeds at all_ made me suspicious about the
> mouthpiece.
> I went to a woodwind shop and tried several new mouthpieces, including some
new
> Selmers, the type I was using then (Selmer C85-120). The Selmers were
absolutely
> different from the old one and much more like it used to be. I solved my
problem
> by buying a new mouthpiece of the same type.
>
> Luuk van Buul
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These comments lead me to suggest using crystal mouthpieces, which, in
my experience, are dimensionally stable. (I've always preferred them.) Is
there scientific evidence for their stability?

Of course, not all mouthpieces are available in a crystal version, and
that's a drawback.
--Ward Cheney (cheney@-----.edu)