Klarinet Archive - Posting 000742.txt from 2000/04

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Stuff that drives me nuts...........
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 15:19:11 -0400

<< She recomended me NOT to get a reed trimmer and she
> explained to me that the fibers in your reed are pinched together when you
> use a trimmer thus you loose a reed that could have been better. >>

Has anyone here SEEN a fiber that has been pinched together? What does it
look like. How do I distinguish it from a fiber that is NOT pinched together?
What vibrational modes of the reed are dampened but having pinched fibers?
Can you observe a pinched fiber under a microscope???

What is a pinched fiber?

I guess I must LIKE pinched fibers, as I played EXCLUSIVELY on my own hand
made reeds, for over 15 years, through Graduate School, playing
professionally, and teaching, and used my reed clipper, on every reed I made.

Now....let's talk about something observable.

If your reed clipper is dull, rusty, broken, by all means discard it.

Otherwise the result of clipping a reed depends on what reeds you clip and
how you do it.

Whenever I clip a reed, I test the flexibility of the tip, which must extend
back evenly across the reed for one to two millineters in order to make a
good sound.

Whenever you clip a reed more than the slighest amount, you need to
re-balance the dimensions of the reed.

This usually means remaking the tip. I use one inch squares of 320, 400, and
600 wet or dry sandpaper on the reed tip. I support the reed on a 1/2 inch
wide thick glass "plaque" and sand back and forth across the tip, often using
onlt the corner of the sandpaper square. I stop every three or four strokes
to feel if I have removed the abrupt "bump" at the end of the reed where it
has been clipped.

I was taught, and still believe, that the in best playing reeds you can
barely feel the tip of the reed against the glass. If by clipping the reed
you have created such a bump, you must remove it, or your reed is permanently
impaired.

Doesn't this make more sense than worrying about "pinched fibers"?????

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