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Legere: edge of reed too

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2021-04-15 00:10

During a bout with a chancre sore right on top of where my lower teeth form the embouchure I became sensitive to anything that made me the least bit uncomfortable. It turns out that the edges of my Legere European Signature reeds seemed (during that period) to be slicing into the soft part of my lower lip.

The cure seemed to be that you can take a metal nail file (or the Vandoren reed wand) and do a very light filing of the very side edge from the corner of the crescent of the vamp up to about a half inch from the tip. I did this with very light pressure; only a few forty-five degree strokes like a violin bow; moving from the lower part of the reed to the tip area with each stroke [on right edge if you're right handed; the left side should also go from lower to upper reed in a sort of "up bow" stroke]. The plastic is pretty transparent, so when you do execute any filing, the material takes on a more opaque look and it is easy to spot that it has been done to that area.

I did this first to only one reed, then when the only difference was a substantially more comfortable reed (no deleterious affects the sound at all......with just a few scrapes that is) I finished the filing on all eight 3 1/4 European cut reeds that I currently rotate. After two weeks things are still great.

Anyone else try something like this? Anyone else find the edges of the Legere reeds and issue?

..................Paul Aviles

Post Edited (2021-04-15 17:53)

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Re: Legere: edge of reed too "edgy?'

Author: OneWatt
Date: 2021-04-15 16:53

Thanks for the excellent suggestion. I have not tried this but, having also experienced soreness around the reed edge on my lower lip in the past (no pre-existing condition, just playing for a while), I'll certainly give this a try.

I really want to love the Legere. It just continues to disappoint. It has its advantages over cane, as are well noted by many here. But I still find that adjusting cane works well enough to obtain superior results in control, tone and musical enjoyment.

Okay, now back to my diminished and whole tone scale arpeggios . . .

- - - - - - - - - -
Israel = Ancient Hebrew for "Wrestles with God"
Klarinet = Ancient Greek for "Struggles with Reeds"

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