The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Understanding reeds

Author: mrn
Date: 2008-03-03 18:17

I have been doing some experimenting with my reed/mouthpiece setup lately. I have made a number of observations about the way certain reeds work with my mouthpiece/ligature, and I am trying to understand *why* I've experienced what I've experienced, largely so that I can better tweak my setup but also just to have a better understanding in general. I've done some research by searching through previous posts on this board, which has been very insightful.

I was hoping that perhaps some of you who have much more knowledge and experience than I do can give me a good explanation of what's going on. (I'm a "serious adult amateur player" who took lessons for many years with a fabulous teacher in my pre-college days. In college I majored in engineering, rather than music, however.)

My mouthpiece is an Eddie Daniels (Zinner blank) and I have a Rovner Mark III ligature. Before I bought the Eddie Daniels, I had a Gigliotti P34, which I found played well with White Master 3.5s. I tried the White Masters on the Eddie Daniels and they sounded even better. They were very responsive and had a nice clear and resonant tone. However, they had a tendency to chirp sometimes. I attributed the chirpyness to the difficulty of getting the little narrow White Master reeds positioned quite right on the mouthpiece (which looks to be a little wider than the Gigliotti). In my subsequent experience with reeds designed for French clarinets, I did not experience this chirping, so I'm led to believe that the reed width/positioning was the issue.

Since White Masters have a thick heel, and thick-heeled reeds seem to be all the rage, I thought maybe I'd try a more French-sized reed with a thick heel to see if I could get similar results without the chirps. So I tried a box of the new Vandoren 56 Rue Lepic reeds (#3.5), which are supposed to have some similarities to German-style reeds (such as a thick heel and a single cut vamp). I was quite disappointed to find that although they don't chirp, the 56s played and sounded very stuffy. Even my wife (who is not a clarinet player) could tell that they didn't sound quite right.

This indicated to me that it was perhaps something other than just the thickness of the blank that I need to look at. I did some research here on the board which indicated to me that perhaps it's the size of the vamp, and not the thickness of the blank, per se, that would explain the different results between the White Masters and the 56s. The 56s have a noticeably longer vamp than the White Masters. I don't know for sure if this would explain the difference, however.

Next I tried a box of blue box Vandorens (also #3.5 strength). These were a noticable improvement over the 56s, but they still weren't quite as playable and pleasant sounding as the White Masters (chirps notwithstanding). Blue box Vandorens appear to have about the same length vamp (maybe a little longer) than the White Masters, but they obviously are cut from a thinner blank (and are obviously wider as well). This leads me to wonder: just what is it about the White Masters that makes them play so well? And can I get the same results from a reed that doesn't require such tight tolerances in positioning?

I understand that there is a Black Master as well as a White Master variety of Vandoren. I haven't tried Black Masters yet, but I've picked up from reading other folks' past posts that the Black Masters are somewhere in between the Blue Box and White Masters in terms of width. I don't know anything else about them, though, or how they might work on my mouthpiece. I think I remember reading somewhere that the Black Masters run softer than the White Masters. Is this true?

Of course, Vandoren 56s are supposed to be "softer" than the Blue Box, but in my experience, the Blue Box reeds blow more easily (at least on my setup). This leads me to believe that "reed strength" does not directly correlate with blowing resistance. Looking at the Vandoren website and their specifications for reeds, it also appears that all Blue Box reeds have approximately the same tip thickness and that the "reed strength" must be a property of the material itself (i.e., the cane), rather than the dimensions. Am I right about this?

Before trying something new, I'd kind of like to see if it's possible to isolate what variations in reed parameters are affecting the way these three different varieties of Vandoren reeds behave on my mouthpiece. I figure that there has to be somebody out there who has enough experience with all of these products to know why they do what they do and why some are more appropriate for my equipment (and musical taste, I suppose) than others. That way, I can know better what to look for to suit my instrument.

By the way, to the best of my knowledge, the Eddie Daniels/Hans Zinner mouthpiece has a 1.04 mm tip opening. I don't know what the facing length dimension is, though.

Thanks!
Mike

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics