 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Mike C
Date: 1999-11-23 02:42
I am suprised to read the posts about the amount of unplayable
reeds in the boxes you folk are buying .I my self have only been playing a short time and being on a fixed income after
an accident only buy 2-3 reeds at a time .
IN New Zealand here we have something called the CONSUMERS
ACT. and buy picking my own reeds 2-3 at a time I have no
comeback with the shop keeper but if I brought a box of ten unopened reeds and found that upto 8 of them where unplayable under the CONSUMERS ACT a refund or replacement would have to be made ,is this not the case in the USA.
After all if it where light- bulbs or eggs and you found a
fault you would be complaining .
I for one could not afford to lose between 50and 80 per cent
of a box of reeds at $35NZ a box of ten over here.
The reed manufactures must think reed players are a very complacent bunch so layed-back in fact willing by what I have read over the last few weeks to buy upto 5 boxes of their reeds to get 10 playable ones,great business if you can get it.BUT in fact if you are throwing away so many reeds something really should be done. Maybe a better cheak
on the reeds leaving the factory these guys must know a good reed from abad one, if it puts the price of reeds up sowhat
they could go up 20-30 per.cent and you would still be saveing money.
And please don't say reeds come from a living plant so
it is hard for them to control what leaves the factory
so do clarinets I would think it harded to make a clarinet
than a reed.
I know little about clarinets and reeds but having a retail business before my accident I know that this must be
the only time I have heard of people not complaining when they are being short changed.
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-11-23 03:52
In my opinion, those who only get one or two good reeds out of a box are suffering from one or more of the following problems. It isn't necessarily the fault of the reeds.
1) Using the wrong strength for the stage of their embouchure development and breath support development.
2) Using the wrong strength for the mouthpiece.
3) Using a style of reed that doesn't suit them and/or their mouthpiece. For example, I don't like Vandoren V-12s yet others adore them. Of course I could play them but found that I did not care for the response so basically gave them away. Just becaus *I* didn't like them, doesn't mean they were bad or unplayable.
4) Are unaware of the fact that very slight mounting differences can make a major difference in how a reed plays. For example if an individual reed is slightly stiff, move it down a hair on the mouthpiece. If it is slightly soft, move it up a hair. If it is a little sluggish or unbalanced move it a hair to one side or the other. Moving the ligature up or down a bit as well as tightening or loosening the screws a little compared to "normal" will also improve the response of some reeds.
5) Are unaware of the fact that weather affects the player/reed interface. The reed that plays great today may be a dog tomorrow and vice versa. Thus a reed that seems poor often just needs to be put away for a different day. Here in South Dakota, the change of seasons is dramatic enough in terms of humidity that some players use a different strength in the winter than in the summer. Others choose to keep the reed strength the same but find they need to adjust to the conditions twice a year. Sometimes the weather changes so fast that it seems like the reeds turn into boards overnight.
Addressing these four elements and being aware of the fifth will dramatically increase the number of decent playing reeds in a box. Then if one learns the basics of reed adjusting, bad reeds almost disappear. In the last 8 years, I've only thrown away 2 new reeds and that's despite the fact that I do almost no adjustments to my reeds (don't want to spend the time on it). The rest have been good to very good (and a great one now and then).
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Author: Ben L
Date: 1999-11-23 06:51
The number of bad reeds in a box isn't realy what it seems.
Many previous postings have described the policy of manufacturers to intentionaly include a variety of strenghts in each box.
First of all, this guarentees that each box will have some playable reeds. It also gives you a selection of reeds to chose from, depending on your particular needs at a time. (eg. marching, jazz, quick reaction, solid performance, good tone, durability, etc...)
I find that for my personal needs (as a first year college student, maintaining clarinet as a hobby) about 80% of a box is playable. It is vary rare for me to find a reed that just doesn't work.
The final thing to remember is that reeds, unlike a broken lightbulb, are "repairable". With a little bit of sandpaper or a pocket knife, I can make an unaceptable reed quite playable.
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-11-23 13:58
I personally wouldn't recommend a pocket knife adjustment to a natural cane reed, unless you are extremely good at it. A knife can shave a lot of material off in one pass and you can't put it back once it's shaved. One pass of the knife can destroy a reed's natural and required taper in the heart of the reed. The folks who recommend the ultra fine grit wet/dry sandpaper have the right idea, in my opinion.
A reed rush is the same as this very light sandpaper. That's because the reed rush takes in grains of sand as it grows and traps that sand in its structure. The proper way to prepare a reed rush is to soak it in your mouth and press it down flat on the lower half of the small piece of rush. The upper part of the small piece can stay dry and stiff, so you can use it as a handle. Now that the rush is ready, use it just like you would the fine grit wet/dry sand paper. Go in one direction only, from the bottom of the reed to the tip of the reed. The sand in the rush is so fine that you won't need to worry too much about grinding out the heart of the reed or messing up the reed's proper taper. I still find that it's amazing how many more reeds I can recover when I do a little work on them. A light pass or two with the rush is all some reeds need. Other reeds may need more work, but patience is the key here. Take a couple of passes with the fine sand paper or the rush, test, try a couple more passes, test again, etc. Stop when it's close to what you want. Then, use Dee's placement tricks to pick up the rest of the performance gap with the reed.
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Author: Margaret Copeland
Date: 1999-11-23 14:07
Maybe one reason reed rush or wet/dry fine sandpaper works so well is that as the reed drys - the grain will raise. This is especially true with a new reed. I find that with my oboe reeds - that it takes a few days - sometimes with light knife scraping (I'm good at it) or the wet/dry sandpaper - to get the reed settled. If you have really good magnifying glasses you can observe the grain on your new reeds and see what the sanding does. Be sure to rinse off your reed with water and get rid of the sand and any particles left from the sanding operation. I put my new oboe reeds in my ultrasonic cleaner for a quick spin as these minute particles can get between the blades of a double reed.
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Author: John Scorgie
Date: 1999-11-23 17:55
Margaret Copeland's posting is right on point and should be downloaded by anyone who is beginning to learn about reed making or reed fixing. "Grain raising" is a problem which will be familiar to anyone who has done quality wood finishing. Unfortunately, it seems that only a few writers on reed fixing are aware that grain raising is a common malady with all "finished" wood, including clarinet / oboe / bassoon / saxophone reeds. The problem can be fixed or greatly improved by VERY LIGHT scraping with a knife, as Margaret suggests (not for beginners), or by "polishing" with rush or fine grit wet or dry paper -- no coarser than 400, although many prefer 600 (the larger the number, the finer the grain). Some do final light polishing with 1200. In any event, final rinsing or cleaning is also important.
I stopped using reed rush many years ago when high quality fine grain wet or dry abrasive paper became generally available. One advantage of rush is that using the rush stalk on end permits more precise reed adjustment, due to the small diameter of the rush. (Rush can also be used on its side, with the longitudinal fibers at a right angle to the direction you are sanding).
To use wet or dry paper for polishing, cut off a few strips say 1/2" wide by a few inches long (the exact dimensions don't matter). Wrap a strip around your index finger near its end. Place your second finger on top of your index finger to keep the paper from unrolling. Rub the reed LIGHTLY back and forth in the direction of the grain (not crossways).
For more precision, you can cut off a tiny piece of abrasive paper and glue it to the eraser end of a wood pencil. This is still not as precise as a small piece of rush, but should suffice for most purposes.
Wet or dry paper can be purchased at any hardware store or home center for less than a dollar a sheet. One 9" x 11" sheet will last a long long time. For reed fixing, it can (and should) be rinsed and reused many times.
"Polishing" a reed in the manner which Margaret suggests will improve the reed in several respects: 1) the smooth surface of the cut portion of the reed will feel much nicer on the lower lip than the rough surface of an unpolished reed 2) the reed will be far less prone to warping 3) the polished reed, once properly adjusted for strength and response, will last MUCH longer than a raw reed out of the box. IMHO, the reason that so few reed companies polish their reeds is that polishing adds significant cost to the manufacturing process.
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Author: Donn
Date: 1999-11-24 15:03
I remember reading (i think in this BB) about using the back side of sandpaper on the reed after playing. This works for me.
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