Klarinet Archive - Posting 000936.txt from 1997/12

From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Subj: TRY BEFORE YOU BUY
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 16:44:03 -0500

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY

After hearing the complaints about the quality of reeds and the meager
number of good ones that one can get out of a box, there must be a
solution to all this.

Don't buy the reeds until you've tried them individually.

Clarinet players ! There is such place.

VANDOREN IN PARIS.

Yes, they allow you to try the reeds and buy only what is suitable for
you.

I was at Vandoren once with my friend, Yona Ettlinger.
There is a small room, where they bring you a tray with 40 reeds of your
choice of strength.
You sit and try all you want. Take your time.

There is just one other thing that goes with it. In the small room
there are about another 12 clarinet players also trying reeds.
They're all playing the latest concerto, trying to show off or whatever.

Imagine trying to find a reed under those conditions.
The reeds are unstamped. When you buy them, they stamp them for you.
I don't know what happens to the "tried" reeds. I guess they stamp them
and throw them into the big pile.
Maybe that is why some reeds that come in a box are good. They've been
tried by someone else and between the time it was tried and you get it
here, some chemical change has worked on it.

Ettlinger was household guest there. His arrangement with Vandoren was
this: He picked 10 reeds and they put them up on a shelf.
After 10 days he would come back and pick the good ones from those 10.
But -you need to be in Paris for this privilege. And Vandoren's friend.

I had another friend who was in Paris for a week.Spent the week going
into Vandoren, picking out the best. 200 reeds in all.
Came back to Toronto and they didn't work at all.
You see, the humidity in Paris is different from here.
If it grows in France, maybe it wants to be played in France.

But you have a choice.
Compliments of the Season to all !

Avrahm Galper