 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bruno
Date: 2002-08-26 19:10
From reading some of you by this forum, I understand that american are using V12 widely. No one is speaking about VD traditionnal reeds (blue box).
Aren't they available in USA?
I have played V12 for a few years (V12 n°3.5 with a B45).
But I have returned to the traditionnal shape. I finally prefer them. They sound more "clear" and give more "timbre".
In France, we are now looking for more timbre and color. For years, we have played more and more round and almost "muffled". The last years, we have understood that this way of playing is not very interesting because of the lack of color and personality in the sound.
Personally, I was used to play Selmer Recital and that V12 were perfect to give a very warm and consistant sound. This was I loved : playing the more round and wide as possible.
Now I play Selmer Signature and Buffet RC. Traditionnal VD blue box is a better choice to me. Significantly cheaper but over all, they allow a better flexibility between playing a bit tough and strange (Poulenc or Stravinsky for instance) and the opposite, very round and thick (Brahms or Schumann).
What do you think of this?
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-08-26 19:48
Bruno wrote:
>
>
> Aren't they available in USA?
No problem at all obtaining them. Some people like them, some people don't.
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Author: Ed
Date: 2002-08-27 01:13
For a lot of the reasons you give, I have had better luck with the traditional Vandorens. It may be that they match my facing better, but I have the same results that you mention. For me they seem to have more resilience and have more life in the sound. I have also found that they last longer for me.
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Author: David Dow
Date: 2002-08-28 15:47
I tend to use both of them--- and this is because of the variety of color the traditional reed gives. I also feel the V12 tend to vibrate differently and give a darker larger sound. Some players still tend towards the traditional Vandoren reeds here, so I can only say that I haven't encountered the slacking off in quality otheres talk of...although I note the wider dicrepancy in resistance in the boxes now with some quite of them very light.
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Author: Marge
Date: 2002-08-28 19:10
You didn't ask about any other brand, but I've switched from longtime use of Vandoren regular/blue box to Gonzalez ("For Our Friends" type)--never liked V-12s. I like the sound and response, and the out-of-the-box consistency from one to the next, with very little fiddling. I don't know whether these are available in stores in the US, let alone in France. I ordered them from the US distributor of these Argentinian reeds from the Davie Cane Co. in Florida. Presumably they also mail to France, though the mailing fee would certainly raise the cost. But it might be worth it since so much of the box consists of good reeds.
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Author: nzdonald
Date: 2002-08-29 14:10
i wrote to my old teacher, Dave Etheridge, some time ago and commented.... "i always seem to end up playing important performances on Vandoren Blue box reeds, even though i use the V12 on a day to day basis". I agree that there is a really good sound that comes from the "traditional reed" design, however i find it VERY difficult to find a good reed from the Blue box- recently for instance i have opened a blue box of VD trad that has NO REEDS worth even trying to adjust let alone a "performance reed". Almost every reed in the box has extreemly thin rails, and every single reed is out of balance, VERY out of balance- not just a little bit.....
....ok, i know everyone looks for something different, but this is ridiculous, i might as well actually throw the money i spent out the window rather than waste time on these reeds. I can't quite get "that sound" out of the Gonzalez FOF, but i'm actually playing nearly every reed out of the box, and the ones that need adjusting are actually worth the bother.....
As i make some of my own reeds i'm going to try to work the Davie Cane reed blanks i use into something similar to the Vand Trad and see what happens.....
so essentially- i know what you're saying, yes there is this vibrancy that's really great with the VD trad, but i've had very little value for money from the last 2 or 3 boxes i've bought.
donald
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