Klarinet Archive - Posting 000040.txt from 2005/07

From: "Patricia A. Smith" <arlyss1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] matching reed & mouthpiece tips
Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 16:23:08 -0400

Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:

>Assuming that (part of) the tip overhangs the mouthpiece, do you also intend to thin the tip wherever you change its shape --- in order that the tip will continue to taper evenly to 'sharp edge' across its entire width?
>
I think also you'd need a much finer sandpaper than 220 (unless
fine-ness is measured differently in different places). I've always
tried for at least 600, for tip work on machine-made reeds. Since I
don't hand-make my reeds, I can't speak to that, but I suspect you'd
need at least that fine of material.

As for adjusting to the tip of the mouthpiece, you definitely want to,
but at the same time, the main thing is not to work on the reed so much
that you ruin its basic characteristics. I think (and this is a
personal opinion, YMMV) that many of us mess with reeds way too much,
and end up with many fewer usable reeds than we would otherwise have, if
we often were more patient and left well enough alone, and left some
reeds to themselves for a while, and came back to them later on -
sometimes quite a bit later. It's been my own experience that sometimes
I've come back to some reeds as long as a couple of years or more later,
and they simply played better than they did the first time I tried to
break them in. BUT... I didn't try to over-"fix" them the first time,
either. If they were over-resistant, or simply felt wrong, I left them
be, because life is just too short to mess with one or two reeds longer
than, what is for me, a set period of time (usually a week or two at
most - and that is only part of a very short practice period to begin with).

Again, YMMV. Everyone has their own system which works for them. And
when you work up reeds from blanks, it becomes more complex, and, as I
have not done this, I can't speak to that. Quite a few folks on this
list do. In fact, I'm curious to know, just how long it took most folks
when they first started making their own reeds, to make the tip - from
either a blank, or the entire half of the cane tube. (I'll own up: the
entire idea kind of scares me. I have visions of wasted cane tubes in
front of me, and a depleted bank account and no reeds for my trouble!)

Patricia Smith

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