Klarinet Archive - Posting 000950.txt from 1997/12

From: Mark Charette <charette@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Reeds
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 16:44:16 -0500

Antoine T Clark wrote:
> Besides a box Vandoren cost about $20 from a local
> music store and from a catalog about 12 to 15 dollars. I find it much
> cheaper to buy about 60 reeds for about $40. In a store $40 only can get
> you about 20 reeds and half of them don't work.

So that's $4.00/reed for commercial reeds using your figures.
I probably spend less than an hour a reed getting a
commercial one in shape.

How long (average) does it take to make a good reed from a
blank? Are any of them "duds"? I have no clue, never having
made one.

Your material cost is about .67 a reed, but since I'm a working
stiff (not as a clarinetist :) I have to put a monetary
value on my time. If I have to spend two or so hours per
reed then $4.00 a reed is a bargain. If it takes only an hour
or so then I think I'll start trying to make my own.

This _does_ discount any other considerations (if making
reeds becomes a hobby, then the value increases to whatever
I want it to. There are also tactile pleasures in working
materials into a new shape).
--
Mark Charette, Webmaster - http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet
Web/Personal - charette@-----.org
Business - charette@-----.com
"There's already an educational TV channel - it's called 'off'."
Lily Henderson, age 11