Klarinet Archive - Posting 000740.txt from 1998/11

From: Dustin Ruffell <ruff@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Re: Reeds
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 15:57:03 -0500

My teacher makes his own reeds but he also uses Vandoren V-12's. My
personal opinion on the matter is that it is good to learn how to make
your own reeds if nothing else but to understand the reed better and a
good book can teach it. However, I have not seen a good book, but I have
seen a fairly decent balancing sheet which gave me a lot of info. So I
drew a conclusion as to whether a book could teach it or not. The best
teacher is probably a little of both!

I do not make my own reeds yet, and I have found that a switch between
V-12 3 1/2 and V-12 4 work remarkably well. I have had 2-3 good playing
weeks on some of my 3 1/2, and my 4 are the same. I live in Ohio, USA, and
the weather seems to dictate which reeds I will actually play on.

Dustin Ruffell

On Thu, 19 Nov 1998 sls2t@-----.edu wrote:

> Hey,
> I'm doing a little research on homemade reeds. My new teacher
> makes his own and gave me a few books with instructions to get me
> started...these books date back to the fiftys and I was wondering if
> anybody A) makes their own reds and how they like them and B) is it
> possible to learn from a book, or should I just keep pestering teachers to
> show me? Some teachers, like my old one, still live and die by Vandoren
> V-12 #4, but for me they're gutless and only last a few days at
> best...What opinions have you all formulated concerning homemade reeds?
> Are there good instruction books out there? Is it worth the time to make
> them? (I spend a lot of time already just breaking in and balancing the
> vandorens.) Opinions on reeds are just as diverse and subjective as the
> people who have them (all of us) so keep the replies free of opinions and
> more on what ya'll consider to be some "known" facts or observations.
>
> Thanks,
> Eric Hatch, USU
>
>
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