Klarinet Archive - Posting 000453.txt from 2000/04

From: Karel Vahala <vahalakv@-----.au>
Subj: Re: [kl] Adjusting reeds
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 07:45:02 -0400

Tony,
Thanks for your pretty detailed description. I have been skewing my reeds to
the left for some time, with very noticeable results (not all reeds). As you
say, I hope this does not result in an epidemic of mangled reeds; I might try
the razorblade on one or two apparently hopeless ones.

Thanks, Karel.

Tony Pay wrote:

> On Tue, 11 Apr 2000 10:57:32 +0800, vahalakv@-----.au said:
>
> > Tony Pay wrote:
> >
> > > On Mon, 10 Apr 2000 20:57:18 -0400, kkrelove@-----.com said:
> > >
> > > > > Oh, one other thing: you can *split* the reed, once or more
> > > > > times, at the tip, down about half a centimetre or so. I tried
> > > > > this about 10 years ago for a few months, but find that I use it
> > > > > relatively rarely now. (There used to be a gadget that did it
> > > > > for you.) It can help with some reeds.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > What does this do to the sound or the response?
> > >
> > > It made them, er, *better*:-)
> > >
> > > Tony
> >
> > Tony, Can you describe how you do the splitting - do you produce two
> > thinner adjacent wafers, or do you make "cuts" across the width of the
> > reed?
> >
> > Thanks, Karel.
>
> All this was intended to be a little bit tongue-in-cheek, though
> certainly there was such a device on sale for a bit.
>
> You could make either one or three small incisions, the first being in
> the middle of the reed and the other, optional two on either side of,
> and parallel to the first. If you made one incision you separated the
> right from the left side of the reed a small distance down from the tip,
> and if you made three incisions you divided the breadth of the reed into
> four 'wafers', as you called them.
>
> As I recall, the incisions to right and left of the central incision
> were slightly shorter than the half-centimetre I talked about.
>
> The incisions were made with wafer-thin blades, and amounted to a
> separation of the fibres rather than anything more drastic. A
> safety-razor blade is the right sort of tool, though perhaps you don't
> have such things in the US anymore.
>
> I suppose the 'half-baked explanation' of the procedure might have been
> that it allows one side of the reed the freedom to vibrate a bit
> independently of the other, which could be imagined to break up any
> unwanted torsional vibration of the reed in its entirety. But I'm just
> making that up.
>
> In a way, I'm sorry I mentioned it, because it's a bit gimmicky, and
> might spark off a worldwide epidemic of mangled reeds if we're not
> careful. You're probably better off making sure the response of one
> side of the reed is comparable to the response of the other, something
> that I probably should have said in my original post. You can check
> that either by rotating the mouthpiece in your mouth as you blow, or by
> mounting the reed slightly to one side or the other.
>
> In fact, just mounting the reed slightly to one side or the other on the
> mouthpiece can often improve it a great deal, and it's something that
> many students don't think of trying seriously. After all, it's a
> reversible change, unlike anything you do with a knife....
>
> And if it disturbs your sense of elegance to have your reed skew-whiff
> on your mouthpiece, recall that Amati violins are quite 'crudely' made.
>
> Vibrational elegance doesn't necessarily correspond to physical
> elegance. (As the archbishop said to the actress.)
>
> Tony
> --
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE www.gmn.com/artists/welcome.asp
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
> ... The reader of this tagline exists only while reading me.
>
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