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Vandoren Reed Trimmer Differences Explanation Sought

Author: SecondTry
Date: 2024-08-20 20:10

I get that Vandy cuts their cane in four different patterns for the reeds it sells us Clarinet Players. (Let's keep this discussion to the Bb/A Soprano clarinet.)

https://vandoren.fr/en/reeds-technical-elements/

And ok, there's probably more, like how V12 reeds are sourced from the thicker reed tubes normally used for Saxophone reeds (if I remember reading that somewhere and not imagining it!)

And still ok, I've compared the width (not thickness) of Traditional, V12, Rue Lepic, and V21 offerings as the reed is looked at from above, and they're not the same.

But what I don't get is when examining the tip contour (as visualized from a crow's eye view above the reed lying flat on a table, not the thickness of the reed across that tip contour) of those brands, this tip's curve contour, as I just defined--which I would think is the thing a reed trimmer design would be most concerned with--appears the same. (Maybe I'm wrong about that.)

Again, examining the thickness of the cane along that tip curve (i.e. examining the reed at eye level looking down on the tip with a thickness gauge) we might find that that thickness varies based on the linked countour map I provided above, but the reed trimmer merely snips the smallest amount of material from that reed tip, right, not the least bit concern with the thickness contour?

To restate, the knife in the reed trimmer that does the cutting merely leaves you with a tip contour that's like the one you snipped but doesn't do anything about the thickness of the reed at any places across that tip, right?

So--and I am sure I am missing something--why are there different Vandoren reed trimmers for each of the 4 reed types they sell?

Clearly there is a reason that I am missing and would appreciate someone explaining to me what I am missing. Maybe it is about the reed's width, which if it is, it would seem that (assuming use all 4 cuts) I could buy the one trimmer for the widest reed Vandoren sells and somehow introduce some "side space shims" to center a narrower Vandoren model reed on a Vandoren trimmer designed for one of their wider reed cuts.

TIA

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