Klarinet Archive - Posting 000411.txt from 1997/03

From: ROBERT SALTIEL <robert.saltiel@-----.com>
Subj: reed adjusting
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 15:12:01 -0500

I've "graduated" from Ricos to Vandorens for a while now, from 2's to 2-1/2 and
3's, and have found that the "joke" about the one good reed seems to be quite
true! I will usually find one (two if I'm lucky) reead that will be instantly
satisfying as soon as I try it. It is the one that sounds so nice and vibrant,
makes no white noise, etc. I am able to feel the tips of the reeds and thusly
sort them by relative hardness within the box, and find that the one or two
"good" reeds may be anywhere in the hardness range, so it isn't a matter of
absolute hard/softness for me whether a reed plays sweetly or not. I've tried
examining the reeds visually and by touch in every aspect imagineable in order
to pin-down just what differentiates the "sweet" reed from the others, and have
come up with nothing at all. Could you please share with me how you appraise a
reed that you feel is not up to par with the best ones, and how you go about
deciding what to do, how and where, to adjust it and thereby improve it?
I am not really having problems with reeds squeaking; I think I got around that
as a matter of technique, but the reeds that don't perform so well out of the
box will be either "thin" sounding, or will hiss (leak?) at the mouthpiece, or
sometimes sound fuzzy. Mostly I think it's the hissing and lack of vibrance of
sound that I encounter with most of the reeds in the box (apologies in advance
for the subjective terms ;-) Please tell me some practical tips so that I may
have some wisdom/understanding as to how to approach my reeds with knife,
sandpaper, rush, etc. intelligently.

Robert Saltiel