Klarinet Archive - Posting 000030.txt from 2004/05

From: RichChPlay@-----.com
Subj: [kl] old cane (was: and now for a quick commercial ad)
Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 22:03:12 -0400

on 5/2/04 10:30 AM, klarinet wrote:

>A rare chance to get cane that is more than 25 years old.
>
>Ah... the good old days....

This is the second time in the last few days that I've seen a post
praising the superiority of "old cane". I wonder if any other players
have the same experience as I do with very "well aged" cane? In my
experience, it gets too dried out and then is more subject to the
vagaries of the wetting/drying process (warping). This causes reeds (and
tube cane from which I make reeds) to suffer in the longevity department,
and also seems to result in less than the optimum sound that I'd like to
hear from these reeds.

BTW, when I was growing up in the 1960's, older players that I knew were
always praising the "old Vandoren Reeds" (certainly pre-1975!). One
player of my acquaintance bragged that he was playing on "pre-war
(WWII!!) stock". It wasn't a sound I wanted to emulate!

It all reminds me of a "Virginia Joke":

"How many Virginians does it take to change a light bulb?"

"Five - one to change the bulb, and four to stand around talking about
how great the old bulb was!"

Later...

David

David Niethamer
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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