Klarinet Archive - Posting 000053.txt from 2000/05

From: "Emily S" <harvinet@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] shaping reed tips (was: another half - ended at "reed adjusting in 5
Date: Tue, 2 May 2000 18:06:39 -0400

I've tried sandpaper, and works fine for me. Also, in my experience it
isn't important to have it absolutly even with the rails. I've
occaisionally had them some wierd shapes and they work just as well as the
first tips. I saw this one girl with a really mangled-looking tip. She had
used her friend's (oboist) reed knife to hack away roughly at the tip- but
amazingly it worked pretty well. No perfect, but if you had seen what this
poor reed looked like, it's incredible that it played so well!

>From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
>Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
>To: "KLARINET" <klarinet@-----.org>
>Subject: [kl] shaping reed tips (was: another half - ended at "reed
>adjusting in 5 minutes")
>Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 21:57:11 -0400
>
>I've been meaning to chime in on this thread, but have been too busy to
>even keep up with KLARINET, let alone any of my other lists. So sorry for
>the delay, but here goes...
>
>Adam began it all:
>
> >I was talking with my teacher a while back about reed clippers
>(SNIP)
> >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
>(MORE SNIP)
> >She
> >recomened me to take sand paper and lightly remove some of the tip of the
> >reed off then adjust the reed a little bit. Does anyone else go by this
>rule?
>
>This elicited a firestorm of replies.
>
>Adam's teacher has been successfully making her own reeds for some time.
>She sits next to me in the Richmond Symphony, where she plays very
>successfully. *She* got this advice from Stanley Hasty when she had a
>lesson at the beginning of her reed making days 10-12 years ago. So it
>isn't crackpot advice - it comes from one of the real reed gurus in the
>US - someone who has also made lots of successful reeds, and taught
>others to do the same.
>
>When Marta passed on this information to me I was very skeptical. But I
>tried it, and for me it does make a huge difference in the sound and
>response of reeds. I see two problems with clippers, even the best ones.
>One, they don't match the shape of the tip of the mouthpiece unless you
>hit the jackpot. More on this below - I'm not sure how important that is,
>but maybe it is. Two, despite Walter's impassioned cries to the contrary,
>I'm sure they crush reed fibers at the tip after about 3/4 uses, and more
>especially if the reed is wet. Even the Vandoren, gold plated at $50
>(approx) has a changeable blade, which dulls pretty quickly.
>
>OK, so #1 - does it matter if the reed matches exactly the shape of the
>rails of the mouthpiece? Maybe the scientists can answer this one better,
>or maybe (GULP!) I'll have to start reading Benade to learn the answer.
>*If* this is important, then hand shaping the tips of reeds is an
>improvement over 99% of the clippers I've ever seen, including the
>Vandoren. the Vandoren is adjustable (so they say) but has anyone
>successfully adapted it to the shape of their mouthpiece? One of the
>flaws in this argument that I can think of is the Dan Johnston
>mouthpieces, which have very wide rails, significantly wider than the
>width of a normal French style reed. Johnston mpcs work very well, in
>spite of this out of the ordinary shape.
>
>Also, Ed Palanker, in one of his article for "The Clarinet" mentioned
>that when he made reeds, they always worked better *before* the tip was
>clipped - in other words, with a squarish shape of the blank at the top.
>I wonder if this was the clipper, or whether the "ears" of the reed which
>extend above the rails of the mouthpiece on either side affect the
>vibrational qualities of the reed. It certainly feels like there is some
>effect to me when I try the reed for general strength before shaping the
>tip.
>
>#2 - crushing the fibers - OK, so Walter, you'll have to come look into
>my microscope for the proof! ;-) Ever watched manic double reed players
>(this mostly means oboists!) take one cut with the knife, then sharpen
>it? Reed cane dulls knife blades incredibly quickly. All of my double
>reed colleagues say it is necessary to use a very sharp knife to make the
>tips of their reeds to avoid crushing the cane and messing up the
>response of the reed. After I discussed this with our principal bassoon,
>he started sanding the tips of his reeds lightly after making the tip,
>and noticed an improved response, a la Abe Galper's advice. Adding
>further to the "folk lore" I only do this work on dry reeds. I think it's
>in Glenn Bowen's reed book (too lazy to go upstairs and get it for the
>complete title) he points out that it is easier to crush or tear the
>fibers of the cane while it is wet. In my experience this is true.
>
>So, when I am ready to shape the tips on my newly made reeds, I've left
>them to dry for at least 30 minutes. I sand toward the center of the tip
>from each corner, with 220 sandpaper at a 90 degree angle to the length
>of the reed. *DANGER* If you sand from the center out to the corner,
>you'll tear the fibers at the corner away from the reed, but only on the
>good reeds!! I've never timed it, but I think it takes just a couple of
>minutes to make a smooth curve that matches my mouthpiece. Of course, it
>takes a bit more time at first.
>
>Roger Shilcock added:
>
> >You're sanding across the grain when you do this. I've found it virtually
> >impossible to end up with a smooth tip.
>
>Roger, this is a legitimate problem with shaping the tip with sandpaper.
>I use a *very* well worn piece of 400 wet & dry sandpaper, and rub the
>very tip of the reed against it front and back to get those "hairs" to
>stand up straight. Then the 220 that I use to shape the tip takes them
>off cleanly with hardly any pressure, leaving a smooth tip.
>
>So, yes, certainly, experiment with all the toys, and do what works for
>you. But while we're exploding myths, lets not say that "50 million
>clarinetist can't be wrong" or "Famous Clarinetist XYZ clips his/her
>reeds in rehearsal". There a more cockroaches than humans on this planet
>- it doesn't necessarily make them a higher life form!!
>
>David
>
>"Brevity is the soul of wit"
>"Less is More" (Buckminster Fuller)
>OK, so it was a long post!
>
>David Niethamer
>Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
>dnietham@-----.edu
>http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/
>
>
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