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How to make a reed shorter

Author: Roxann
Date: 2014-02-01 19:46

Jessica Phillips, "clarinet musician and educator," talks about using Bb reeds on her Eb clarinet on one of her youtube videos. I'm going to give it a try. However, I need to cut about 8mm off the end of the reed. I never realized how tough that end of the reed is until I started using an exacto knife to do the job. The exacto knife isn't the answer. Do any of you have experience converting your Bb to an Eb reed? What did you use to cut off the end? I'm using an old Bundy Eb #3 mpc and have been using an Eb reed on it. In my opinion (I'm very much an amateur), the tip opening of the mpc is a whole lot wider than the Eb reed is. The Bb seems to be the correct width for that particular mpc. Is this common among different brands of Eb mpc's? The fellow sitting next to me at rehearsal this morning said it sounds like I need to use a stiffer reed. What would he have been hearing that would lead him to that suggestion? Thanks once again for your help.

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Re: How to make a reed shorter

Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2014-02-02 00:58

The neatest way is to use a small saw and hold the reed formly against a hard edge to keep it steady.
The sort of small saw handymen or engineers regularly use is fine as long as the teeth are fairly closely spaced.
Some players claim that a pair of secateurs will work athough I suspect it will leave a ragged and splintered end.

I have found that some of the Vandoren mouthpieces tend to have very wide windows and a Bb reed is a much better fit on those.

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Re: How to make a reed shorter

Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-02-02 01:05

I used wire cutters (side cutters) to chop down Eb reeds for use on sopranino sax. The heel end isn't critical, but do file it smooth so no splinters come off it.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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Re: How to make a reed shorter

Author: Roxann
Date: 2014-02-02 05:04

Thank you, Norman and Chris...it worked!!! Much better tone and SO much easier to hit the altissimo range when the reed is beefier:)

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