Klarinet Archive - Posting 000809.txt from 1997/03

From: BKruse@-----.COM
Subj: What's so special about cane?
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 15:12:56 -0500

In all the discussions about reeds, I've never seen this question
addressed. Sure, there have been a few threads about plastic reeds, but
why, out of all the materials on earth, do we rely on a cheap piece of
bamboo?

Has anyone ever experimented with other materials? Wood? Metal? Bizarre
space-age stuff?

OK, I'll start. Decades ago when I was just a teenager I ground down a
piece of brass to the point I could get it to vibrate. It made a very
brassy reedy sound very different from a 'clarinet' sound but also not
really like a sax sound. Couldn't get above the top of the staff though.
Probably not thin enough.

Barry