Klarinet Archive - Posting 000485.txt from 1997/07

From: Michael Kolos <clarinet@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Mr. Morre & his Reeds was Re: [Fwd: Re: Reeds]
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 20:11:26 -0400

Jacqueline Eastwood wrote:
I still have a box of Morr@-----.=
=20
I remember finding them quite wonderful at the time, but even wonderful
had its limitations. They seemed to play great out of the box, but they
had a sort of "thin" quality to them, and they seemed to die quickly.=20
Of course, this is only speaking from using the reeds from two boxes or
so, that were over 20 years old!
I never got the impression that they were similar to V-12s, though.

Michael

> The man who made the wonderful reeds was Mr. Morre, and his reeds were
> available exclusively from Marks Music in Pennsylvania. They were 12 t=
o a
> box for about $20 give or take. They were absolute gems, and I still h=
ave
> the very last one I used -- it's been clipped and reworked so many time=
s
> that it doesn't play any more!
>=20
> I also heard that he destroyed his equipment because he didn't want any=
one
> else to copy his work. But I also recall that he had some terminal
> illness (cancer?) which prompted this.
>=20
> Van Doren V-12's were indeed designed to imitate the specs of the Morre=
,
> but I personally do not think they succeeded.