 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Kim
Date: 2001-12-19 16:30
I was wondering whether anyone out there has experience using both the reed wizard and the reedual. I'm at the very beginning stages of learning to make my own reeds and am in the process of purchasing equipment. I just bought a reedual and was wondering whether it would be worth it to also purchase a reed wizard. My impression is that using a reed wizard requires less skill than the reedual, which might be good for me at this stage. Any thoughts?
Also, does anyone have any recommendations for a specific brand of a shaper/profiler? I want something pretty similar to the width of V12 reeds. It seems like some of them are a bit narrower.
Also, tube cane...does anyone have any preferences for specific brands? I ordered some glotin and some cane from pro oboe. The glotin seem to vary greatly in the thickness of the tubes.
My final question is whether anyone has recommendations about the best grit of sandpaper to use on the sanding wheel of the reedual.
Any advice would be appreciated, as this all is very new to me.
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Author: Pat
Date: 2001-12-19 17:06
I use the reedual and have been experiencing a lot of good fortune with it. I use dilutiuses products for the shaper and profiler. I think when I ordered the two products, i told him to shape it with the measurements of v-12. As a started making my own blanks, I found that narrowing the blanks even further helped me get the response i wanted. i use a v12 as a model. Even with a narrow blank, i get great reeds from it. My teacher, who also uses the reedual, likes the way my reeds have been sounding
As far as sand paper. You would be best with useing 220 garnet paper for the wheel. My teacher says Norton sandpaper is the best quality sand paper. He claims it is a trick of the trade that that sandpaper is the best. I use it because it is easy to find at Home depots
As far as cane, I really like Riggotti cane. I found for me it is very easy to work with. I will be getting some proboe shop cane very soon and wiill be working with that.
Cane does vary in thinkness on tubes when you order a pound. When that happens, I saw my blanks by measuring first at the thicker end of the tube. I discard the thinner side of the tubes.
I have some other advice. Before you put the blank on the reedual, sand the back of the blank flat. Reeds won't work well if the are warped and you make them. Making reeds takes lots of patience, and I find for me I can not be distracted when making them. If you fail at first, don't give up. You are human and mistakes happen, and just keep going. That is my adivice
pat
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Author: William
Date: 2001-12-19 17:29
The reedual is like a key copying machine at your local hardware store. It will copy (clone) a reed from a model (a reed that performs well for you) to its exact dinensions every time from a reed blank. The RW will help you "profile" an already made reed. Since the nature of cane is so inconsistant from blank to blank, I don't think that either product is the complete answer. Both work well for what they do, but you still will have to put the "finishing" touches on by reed knife or sand paper. Personally, I choose to buy commercially made reeds and use the RW to correct any profile problems they may have. Then, with conditioning and balancing to my mouthpiece, I can usually produce nine out of ten playable reeds from any given box of ten--V-12s for ex. In my old age, I am too lazy to make my reeds from blanks. Hope this helps your decisional process. Good Clarineting!!!!!
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Author: Kim
Date: 2001-12-19 19:53
Thanks for the responses, especially the detailed one that you gave, Pat.
Don Quijote, here's Robert Dilutis's website that has a picture of a profiler on it, which provides a way (other than sanding) of narrowing the width of a larger reed. It's typically used in reedmaking from tube cane, though (as opposed to more typical reed adjustments).
http://www.frontiernet.net/~reedmach/reedmachine2001001.htm
As for a reedual, (anyone, correct me if I'm wrong) I think that they are not currently being made, so you have to find a used one. I think that Robert Dilutis's reed machine is similar, though I'm not exactly sure. I know that there are other machines that are in the works but not out yet. Like I said, I'm just in the beginnning stages of it all.
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Author: Pat
Date: 2001-12-19 20:18
I didn't know that they were not being made. I know a guy in my studio bought one a few months ago.
As for Don. The reedual just makes the reed. Triming the sides and planing it flat are done with other devices. I know someone mentioned that reed blanks are inconsitent. I find this is true for a box of ten reeds.
I have no problems with the reed wizard. I tried one out at the clarinet fest in OK. Armato used his device on a few of my reeds.
I have had great luck with the reedual. I do not use a reed knife, reed rush, or sand paper to finish the cut. Making the reeds themselves off the machine takes lots of concentration. I have to be detailed to every last step. As far as making blanks, I watch television while I am doing it. It isn't that much extra work once you get use to it. Good clarinetting.
pat
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Author: Kim
Date: 2001-12-19 20:40
so would you say that the reed wizard requires less skill than the reedual, but that once one develops more skill with the reedual that there is more potential for better results with it?
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2001-12-20 01:57
Greg Smith site has another type of reed profiler based on his own old MORRE reed. I have one. One of the thing I noticed is that my old Kasper and Greg's Kasper style mouthpieces have very narrow table ends to match the reed vamp ends profiled by this gear.
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Author: Pat
Date: 2001-12-20 02:47
I personally think the results can be very much in your favor when you develop the skill of the reedual. I think there are more factors when using the reedual. It forces one to become very detailed orientated when making reeds. Everytime I used it the begining, I was learning ways to improve what I was doing on the machine. I like the way with the reedual you can work with different types of cane.
I am not very familiar with Greg Smith's profiler. I was wondering how much it profiles off comercially made reeds. I use a kasper mouthpiece, and I deffinatly find vandoren reeds too wide for my mouthpiece. I was wondering if the profiler takes off a signicant or miniscule amount of the reed.
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Author: Gregory Smith
Date: 2001-12-20 03:32
The profiler allows for a tip width of anywhere from 13mm down to 12.5mm. The taper from top to bottom replicates the Morre' French cut (13mm) and the German cut (12.5) and anything in between. One can narrow the reed gradually in small, precise measurements. For the Kaspar, the V12 (13.2-13.3mm wide tip) is indeed not as compatible for that mouthpiece. The Kaspar was usually 13mm wide at the tip.This is one of several reasons that I developed this profiler for my own use before making it available to the public.
Gregory Smith
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Author: jeff
Date: 2001-12-20 20:12
Hello
You can still buy reedual by contacting
George Crossman 954-776-0475
he is an extremely nice man.
Also, Kim if you don't mind where did you order the glotin tubes from? i have been looing for a source for it for while.
thanks
jeff
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Author: Kim
Date: 2001-12-20 21:46
I ordered the glotin tubes from Fred Weiner in NY. I'm sure that the # is listed under the retail section of this website.
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