Klarinet Archive - Posting 000935.txt from 2000/12

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: Re: [kl] Reeds
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 02:23:21 -0500

<><> David=A0Niethamer wrote:
let me recommend Larry Guy's "Selecting and Adjusting Single Reeds" for
those who want some good ideas about reed work.

I do have a copy of it (and I bought it from Gary) <grin>

<><> Can you characterize some of these irregularities? I often
find that reeds which, even to the naked eye, seem to be quite
irregular, will play fine when put on the mouthpiece. Therefore I'm
reluctant to make any kind of judgment about a reed based on visual
inspection only. For me, they either play of they don't. If they don't,
I may try a few tricks to get them to play better, before I run out of
experimentation time and pitch them.

Like everyone else, I've had the experience of deciding that a reed
is miserable one day, and then the next day it plays beautifully. This
means that there are lots of opportunities to develop superstitious
behavior, especially for beginners whose playing varies more from one
day to the next.

But recently the reeds that have frustrated me have had visible
asymmetries such as: [using Larry Guy's terminology on pg. 15 of his
reed book]

(1) patches that transmit more light than the rest of the reed when I
put the reed on top of a photographer's light table. I recognize that
a reed needs a 'spine' that starts full width at the 'shoulder' and
tapers symmetrically as it approaches the tip and disappears at the very
tip. I'm not talking about the differences between spine and rail and
tip. I don't know whether these patches are a function of bad cutting
or variations in the cane's density.

(2) thick fibers that raise themselves above the remainder of the reed,
and the diameter of these overlarge fibers varies along their length,
sort of like snakes who just ate a big meal and have bumps along their
bodies where the undigested hunks of meat sit in their intestines [my
Dad collected snakes for museums when he was young, someday I'll tell
you what I did to a matronly lady who insisted on smothering me in her
massive bosom with a big hug and too much perfume every time she visited
us when I was a kid] Recently I've had a bunch of reeds with this
quality, mixed in with reeds that don't have it, perhaps 50%.

(3) the 'shoulder' of several reeds were not perpendicular to the reed's
long axis. I didn't need a loupe to see this.

One detail --- which I asked about in a post yesterday, and a loupe
is not required to see this --- is the curvature of the reed's tip.
When it doesn't match the curvature of the mouthpiece's tip rail, it
seems like sudden death to me. Depending on how I choose to position
such reeds, either pat of the reed's tip falls short of the mouthpiece's
tip rail, or the reed's tip protrudes beyond the mouthpiece's tip rail.
The result appears to be hissing and added resistance. I've
rummaged in the Klarinet archives a bit, and there does not appear to
consensus about this, however.
This is why I asked why there is more than one curvature in the
industry. Obviously mouthpiece and reed makers wouldn't do it without
a purpose.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org