Klarinet Archive - Posting 001277.txt from 1997/10

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: 4.5!!!?
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 20:01:20 -0500

On Mon, 27 Oct 1997, Roger Garrett wrote:

> Semantics.....some boxes say SIZE 2, 3, etc., others just have a number.
> Size, in the way we have been referring to it, is the strength or
> hardness/softenss.

Thanks for this information. I've never heard of this before, and have
been playing the clarinet for over 48 years. Which manufacturers label
their reeds as being in different "sizes?"

I admit that the concept is foreign to me. As I conceive of it, "size"
means dimensions. There are a lot of things about a reed that can be
measured, including density, mechanical hardness, resilience, thickness,
etc. Still, I have always been under the impression that the number on
the box referred to the degree of resilience of the reed, referred to
informally by musicians as "hardness."

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu