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?faulty reeds?

Author: Karel Vahala
Date: 2000-05-26 07:32

After reading Hiroshi's opinion that it is good to buy a number of boxes of reeds and storing them for a period of time, I bought some 15 boxes of Grand Concert reeds. Recently I dipped into a box, to find that 3 out of 5 reeds had an odd longitudinal discolouration running in the direction of the fibres, affecting between 1/3 and 1/2 of the width of the reed. Several other boxes are similarly affected. They seem to be difficult to play well. Is this an acceptable, common ocurrence? Should I complain?
Thanks in advance for any advice, Karel.

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RE: ?faulty reeds?

Author: Meri
Date: 2000-05-26 14:42

Karel:

I have found fairly often that the colour of the reed hardly bears any correlation to its potential as a good reed. (at least with Vandorens) I have had reeds that are the perfect "golden" colour which appear well-balanced to be terrible even after a lot of work, while other reeds, which might have some brown spotting for example and possibly slightly unbalanced (the balance is corrected)to be excellent reeds for quite a long period with very little work.

So if you're willing to work on your reeds a bit, what might initially be a bad reed may well become an excellent one.

Meri

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Thanks, Meri

Author: Karel Vahala
Date: 2000-05-27 02:06

Thanks Meri. To expand a little, the discolouration is not a spot, it is like a flash of colour on the table of the reed, affecting the whole length, and 1/3 to 1/2 of the width. I have not seen anything like it on any other reeds I have had.
Karel.

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