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 reed breaking in and refacing
Author: Iacuras 
Date:   2004-09-08 01:40

Hey all. I was just wondering what reed refacing is, and how one might accomplish it, and what are the advantages of breaking a reed in, and how one might accompplish it. Thanks in advance.

Steve
"If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon."
"If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly."

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 Re: reed breaking in and refacing
Author: William 
Date:   2004-09-08 15:12

"Handbook For Making and Adjusting Reeds" by Kalman Opperman

Buy, rent or borrow it..........read it (maybe twice), and then come back if you have any further questions (and you most likely will).

Breaking in reeds?? They last longer and sound better. Very basically, my method is to saliva soak my new reed, fresh from the box, for a minute or so, and then rub the vamp with my forefinger (to seal the xylum and prevent overabsorbtion of saliva) before trying on my mpc. I only play it for a couple of minutes the first time, and then put it on a sheet of glass and let dry at least two days before re-trying. Important--saliva soak (no water) and rub the vamp each time before playing. Gradually increase the playing time, adjust as necessary--this will be covered in the book you are going to read twice--and then enjoy your properly broken in and prepared reed on your next gig. Good luck.

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 Re: reed breaking in and refacing
Author: george 
Date:   2004-09-09 00:17

What's a xylum?

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 Re: reed breaking in and refacing
Author: krawfish3x 
Date:   2004-09-09 01:45

xylum is a biology term. it's basically the "veins" of the reed.

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 Re: reed breaking in and refacing
Author: lycfmtkl 
Date:   2004-09-09 01:53

can you please tell me why is it necessary to rub the vamp each time before playing ?

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 Re: reed breaking in and refacing
Author: hans 
Date:   2004-09-09 02:25

Richard,
You rub the vamp to seal the xylem.
Regards,
Hans

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 Re: reed breaking in and refacing
Author: D Dow 
Date:   2004-09-09 15:15

The concept of rubbing the vamp or the face of any reed each time you play in my opinion not only ages the reed, but leads to an early reed death.

Harold Wright, and later Herb Blayman advised me never to rub or buff the front of the reed whatsoever. Both of them had very long successful artistic careers....so I never do this and find a reed knife (Herder) and an kNIFE ALL I need....as to other techniques like rubbing the reed with the fingers I find that this softens the reed for a while...but later it simply becomes harder because of all the grime the fingers put into the reed.

However, if this technique works for some...then so be it.

David Dow

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 Re: reed breaking in and refacing
Author: John Scorgie 
Date:   2004-09-09 20:47

Many players recommend and use the system suggested by William.

FWIW, here is another approach:

At first I finished reeds with dutch rush. Later I began using wet or dry paper, 400 grit, although many people prefer 600 grit. More recently I have gone to using a knife to scrape the surface, much the same way that a cabinetmaker uses a tool called a cabinet scraper.

If you choose to try this method, go light and easy. Make dust, not shavings.

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 Re: reed breaking in and refacing
Author: OpusII 
Date:   2004-09-10 06:39

Just learn to adjust the reed....I agree it takes practice, but you will love it at the end ;)

I personally use the vandoren reed resurfacer..

- First I play 3 days 2 minutes on every reed out of the box
- 4th, 5th, 6th day I use the resurfacer to flatten the back and play 5 minutes on them
- The reed is mostly settled than and doesn't wrap again....

Then I'm going to adjust the reed with the stick that came with the reed resurfacer until the reed is just great ;) Mostly I get about 7 a 8 useful reeds out of a box......this technique works for me, but not for everybody....

So just try some different technique and keep the one you like best ;)



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 Re: reed breaking in and refacing
Author: sbbishop 
Date:   2004-09-10 14:55

Or you might just try the Legere reed and save yourself a lot of time and effort.

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