 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Meri
Date: 1999-11-23 21:17
I don't know about you guys, but the last few boxes of Vandoren Regular reeds that I opened had at least 4 reeds that you could very easily tell were cut badly. Most of these have sounded almost as bad.
Have you guys noticed this too?
Meri
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Author: HIROSHI
Date: 1999-11-24 00:22
No. Their cut is made by machines. I think the badness comes from cane condition not from cutting. See the article of an interview with Mr.Vandoren in this BBS archive. He saids reed is like wine. Drink it where it is made. I am now testing aging V12 reeds at least one year.
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Author: William Fuller
Date: 1999-11-24 14:16
I played VDs for thirty years and they were always notorious for their inconsistancies of "cut" and strength ratings. But, they were the best on the market when you found a "good" one. I now play Marcas which seem to me to be a bit more consistant or at least workable. But the sound of a good VD is still hard to beat.
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Author: Kimberly Nisius
Date: 1999-11-25 03:42
Not only are the traditionals that my students use been bad, but the V12 that I normally use have also been bad. I am now in the process of trying diffent reed brands. I haven't found any yet that are any better. I talked to a few professionals and have just about decided to go their direction. Since I am comfortable making oboe reeds It wouldn't be hard for me to also work my clarinet reeds down from a very hard reed. So they suggested buying #5s and working them down and shaping them the way I want them.
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Author: diane k.
Date: 1999-11-25 04:56
I've also had several boxes of V-12's that were clearly cut off center - to get the tip of the reed to match my mouthpiece, I had to put the reed on at an angle. I'm playing almost exclusively GS's now - they work very, very well for me.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-11-25 15:08
Kimberly Nisius wrote:
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So they suggested buying #5s and working them down and shaping them the way I want them.
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Unless you're looking for generally 4.75s, this is probably not all that good advice. You'll be thinning the reeds a lot to get them down to 4.5s or less.
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Author: Daniel
Date: 1999-11-26 20:53
Mark Charette wrote:
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Kimberly Nisius wrote:
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So they suggested buying #5s and working them down and shaping them the way I want them.
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Unless you're looking for generally 4.75s, this is probably not all that good advice. You'll be thinning the reeds a lot to get them down to 4.5s or less.
My Theory teacher (also a very good sax player) buys Vandoren 5's and works them down to strength 3.5 or so (sax reed strengths are a little different than clarinet reed strengths.
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Author: Sir Green Knight
Date: 1999-11-27 04:15
Very Very Very thin!!!!
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Author: Kimberly Nisius
Date: 1999-11-28 17:47
sorry I should let you know I am used to making my own oboe reeds. Now there is a thin itty bitty reed for you to work with. I would be no different working on them, I just wouldn't be starting from scratch, and the proportions are much larger.
by the way, I just worked a hard #4 down to one of the best reeds I have played on in a long time.
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Author: Chris Hill
Date: 1999-11-29 01:12
Many people, including me, prefer working on harder reeds in order to be able to come up with something more to our individual liking. Over the years, I've gotten pretty quick at making # 5's into flexible sounding reeds with the sound I prefer. This isn't for everyone, I realize.
Chris
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-11-29 01:50
Chris,
Possibly you misunderstood me. Many people scrape reeds to soften them or get rid of a hard spot, but few would try to make a 5 into a 3 1/2. The physical dimensions of a #3 and a #5 are the same; you have to take _a lot_ off to get a 5 to a 3. If someone was doing that I'll bet it'd be just as efficient to make your own from tube cane or cane blanks.
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Author: paul
Date: 1999-11-29 15:44
These postings are very interesting, but the fundamental question is still left unanswered. Why is Vandoren obviously purposefully making a lot of off-center reeds now? What caused this change in design? Why didn't Vandoren fix their machine or machines to give us the properly cut reeds? Is the repair or adjustment of the reed cutting equipment so expensive that Vandoren is willing to ruin their entire business because of it?
I'm sure that Mr. Vandoren has a perfectly logical reason why the reeds are coming out even more skewed than before. However, I don't see it. I just don't believe that the reed consumers in the US are going to stand for the high total reed failure rate (40% or more) for much longer.
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