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Re: Bootman's Reed Drilling Process

Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2004-05-06 17:03

David and Everyone,

For several years I've been stashing away boxes of my favorite Alexander reeds in zip lock bags marked with the year of purchase. It will be interesting to see how they play after 10 or 20 years. Images of a reed wine cellar comes to mind! ha ha ha

Bootman was very helpful to me when I got back into playing after a 20+ year break and I have a lot of respect for him. Thus, a couple of years ago I tried his reed drilling process on some soprano, alto, tenor, and clarinet reeds. My first impressions were positive. However, after a short period of time and, in particular, after using some drilled reeds on gigs I changed my mind and went back to my trusty undrilled reeds. It seemed to me that drilling takes the "life" out of a reed. Shortly after coming to that conclusion from my own experience I was talking with Ralph Morgan and he got on my case for drilling reeds. His point of view matched the conclusion I had reached after trying it.

Personally, I've gotten much better results with fine-tuning my set up in matching a particular reed cut & strength to the mouthpiece of my choice. Then, forget about my equipment and practice....practice....practice!

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Bootman's Reed Drilling Process new

Dan Shusta

2004-05-06 03:29