 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Allie
Date: 2003-03-13 01:29
My Grandpa plays sax, and years ago he played with a couple other old gents in a sax trio. He says that they would bend their reeds just untill they started to make a cracking sound, then just play on them. That's all they would do to break them in. What is the reason for this? Does it really work to soften the reeds this way, or is it just like "an old wives tale"? Just curious. It sounds to me like a way to break a lot of good reeds!!
Allie
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2003-03-13 02:15
More like an Old F**t's tale...
Most of the reed makers will tell you that the stuff is ready to play with only a brief soak.
If you do a search in the history of this BBS, there is an excellent break in method from Dave Spiegelthal. I use it, and it's as good as any method.
The key is in sticking to ONE way of doing this, to reproduce good results.
Alternately, you could switch to one of the excellent synthetic reeds and forget about all the fuss...
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Author: msloss
Date: 2003-03-13 12:49
When I was a young lad, we had to slog into the marsh and carve our own reeds right off the cane stalks. And we didn't have knives. We had to use our fingernails, and we got splinters and we bled. AND WE LIKED IT!
G*d bless 'em if it worked, but sounds like a little Grandpa-hyperbole. Still, I've seen people do some pretty darn weird things with their reeds...
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2003-03-13 17:30
Sound like a pretty expensive way to find out if a reed works....
David Dow
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-03-13 18:23
msloss,
Didn't you also have to walk 12 miles in the snow to get to the swamp...up hill both ways? :-)
But seriously, I have heard of old timers bending reeds to "break them in" before playing. I think it may have been a practice of "lower level" (perhaps, as opposed to orchestral) players, because the only one I ever heard of that from, was an old timer who had played sax in various and sundry wedding and party bands, and not very exclusive ones, at that. (No offense meant to your grandad, Allie.)
I tried it once and ended up with a broken reed, which I promptly used as filler in my ongoing, daily kitchen trash project. :-)
Peter
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Author: msloss
Date: 2003-03-13 19:36
Up hill, both ways, barefoot. Oh yeah, carrying my entire family on my back.
LOL
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2003-03-14 11:26
There are several sponsors of the Woodwind pages that have easily read guides... ANY one of them will work for you if you keep to a method.
Larry Guy's is the one I use, and the others are good too.
Find the one that you can stick to without making toothpicks of your V12s.
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2003-03-14 16:23
Then there's my Grandpa who would fill the tires on his car to about 50 psi, he swore that GM was crazy to tell you to fill them to only 32 psi. Of course he'd use bacon fat on his bread (he was an old farmer), and had a museum on his porch. Some things you just have to check out on the Clarinet Pages.
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Author: Peter
Date: 2003-03-14 18:22
Oh, boy, Brenda! Does that bring back childhood memories!
There are no bisquits like ones brushed with bacon grease before and after baking, and as far as a "museum" on the porch, it was standard practice for most of the country old timers back then, up home.
Was this in Texas for you? For me it was in upstate NY and Western NC. I guess when people used to say, "Go West, young man..." they also meant "...and take all your good junk with you so it can continue to live on your porch!" Etc.
Peter
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