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Breaking in and Balancing New Reeds

Author: Caco185
Date: 2006-09-23 01:44

Hey folks! I was just wondering how everyone breaks in their new reeds? I do the old "dip and let dry for five days on a flat surface, and then play for 5 days 5-10 minutes a day... it works fairly well.. I just think I'm missing something.

Please share your breaking in processes with me!!! :-)

Everyone mentions "balancing" a reed.. I have been playing for quite a few years now, and have never balanced a reed. What is this all about? What exactly do you do to balance a reed?

Dale Huggard
Clarinet Performance Major, Michigan
Buffet R-13 - Silver plated
Genussa Excellente
Spriggs Floating Rail Ligature
Vandoren V12 #4

Post Edited (2006-09-23 04:50)

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Re: Breaking in New Reeds

Author: GBK
Date: 2006-09-23 03:29

We've had many threads about this topic (Did you read any of them in the archives?)

Here is the most recent one from just a few months ago. It should give you plenty of information to start with;

http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=218656&t=218644 ...GBK

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Re: Breaking in and Balancing New Reeds

Author: William
Date: 2006-09-23 23:24

I recommend you follow GBKs advice, but--one more time, just for you:

I never use water for any of my cane reeds. Saliva is, IMHO, best. I play them out of the box (VanDoran 3.5 trads), new from the music store, for a few minutes and then let them sit/cure for a couple of days. They will change, usually for the better. After that, if it plays, use it. If it needs adjusting, work on it. I use a reed knife and a Reed Wizard, by Ben Armato and am usually able to make nine out of ten reeds playable. My entire bread-in, adjusting process takes about a week and while not all are "top notchers", very few are absolutely wasted (thrown away).

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