 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Sara
Date: 2000-09-19 02:06
It's probably just me, but just out of curiosity has anybody else had problems lately with their reeds starting to suck.The last two or three boxes have really been bad, the number of playable reeds has dropped dramatically and the ones that do play don't for as long ast hey used to. I was just wondering if anyone has seen the decline as well. Well I'd love to hear any responses or comments that anyone has on this!
Sara
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-09-19 02:17
Sara,
This lament has been heard for many, many years. Sometimes you get a bum box or two, sometimes the weather plays tricks, sometimes its you.
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2000-09-19 02:19
In Klarinet archive you can find a post by Montreal Symphony clarinetist that he heard from Vandoren's owner directly now Vandoren uses cane Spain,Argentine or other countries cane besides Var region cane.
Alexander superial's owner says in early 1980's there atacked Europe severe cold climate in summer that ruined many of Arundo Donax plantation in Var region.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-09-19 02:26
Hiroshi wrote:
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In Klarinet archive you can find a post by Montreal Symphony clarinetist that he heard from Vandoren's owner directly now Vandoren uses cane Spain,Argentine or other countries cane besides Var region cane.
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Vandoren has been doing that for at least 3 and most probably more years (check the date on the posting) and it wasn't specified <b>which</b> reeds came from places other than the Var region. It could be the sax reeds for all we know. Perhaps someone can cantact Vandoren and get the complete story.
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Author: Nate Zeien
Date: 2000-09-19 03:21
Sara, I think I have noticed a recent decline in quality, but I haven't had a problem with the cane itself. I adjust my own reeds, and they seem to play fine. I've found that they don't play as well before the adjustment as they used to. Perhaps the cane is uneven, and mechanical methods aren't doing as good of a job as they normally do. Usually Vandorens are fairly consistent, as far as quality goes. By this I am refering to the number of good ones out of each box, and not each reed. You may want to try adjusting them, it works for me. Just my observations. -- Nate Zeien
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Author: Frank
Date: 2000-09-19 18:52
One of the reasons that the cane is not as good as it used to be is because VanDoren no longer ages the can for 2 years before it's cut into reeds. Back in the old days, the cut cane stalks would sit outside for a couple years and dry/age. Now, the demand being so high, the can't afford to let cane just sit there for 2 years. I think now they only age it for one year at most! So you should buy reeds well in advance (maybe a 10-month supply) and let them sit out in the open air for a few months (a year would be better) so that they continue to dry. Sometimes you can even taste sap in the reed--that means that it's FAR from dry.
And as for cane from different parts of the world: Olivieri has used cane from Spain for many years, and it's just fine. Var isn't the only place on the planet with good cane.
Frank
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Author: Dave Spiegelthal
Date: 2000-09-19 19:11
If you look at old newspapers (from any year or even previous centuries) you'll find articles proclaiming the decline of civilization. Similarly, someone writes that Vandoren cane is getting worse and worse. Yet year after year, people buy Vandoren reeds and then praise them! Go figure......
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Author: Lelia
Date: 2000-09-20 12:41
With wood for carpentry, beneficial ageing takes place after the wood is rough-sawn into lumber, not after it is made into finished pieces. Wood not properly aged, or artificially aged too fast if it's kiln-dried, may warp or split after it's milled. The idea that long storage might improve reeds conflicts with my own experiences so far.
I've set aside some reeds to age them for two years to five years (actually I bought some extras in case of Y2K disruptions and didn't need them right away, so it seemed like a good time to experiment...) and am curious to see what happens with those, but the very old reeds I've found in cases with used instruments have ranged in quality from adequate to the worst I ever used, and all have worn out quickly. For me, these old ones disintegrated all of a sudden, after only a few hours of use, with multiple chips and splits. These were *very* old, though -- twenty years or maybe more in some cases -- and these reeds may not have been properly stored, although they looked okay. (I've thrown out a whole lot of old reeds that *didn't* look okay -- some of those cases were mold and mildew farms and I'm not about to put a used or deteriorated-looking reed in my mouth.) I'm curious to see how *moderate* ageing affects reeds I bought new and stored under normal house conditions where I keep the clarinets.
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