 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Chris22311
Date: 2008-10-24 15:39
Does anyone have any recommendations? I was recommended Nielson from Robert Dilutis but they don't sell clarinet reed blanks as far as I know.
Chris
Chris
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Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2008-10-25 18:09
When I lived in Chicago I got blanks for my Reed Dual at Nielsen
(http://www.nielsen-woodwinds.com/).
I can't remember if they ever listed clarinet blanks on their site but I remember that clarinet blanks were a tiny part of their business, their business being oboe and bassoon supplies.
I remember Nielsen's clarinet reed blanks being all over the map. Thickness of the blank went from 1 mm to almost 3 mm and many of the blanks were warped. That might have changed (if they still sell clarinet blanks at all).
An alternative might be to make the blanks from tube cane.
When I was at Yale I used to get tube cane at Weiner music in New York.
I notice they still list tube cane on their site:
http://www7.mailordercentral.com/frederichweinerinc/departments.asp?dept=1014
Some woodwind stores here in Montreal tell me they could order clarinet tube cane but there is no demand. However it is simply a question of ordering the cane in a big enough dimension.
Eyeballing my tube cane it looks to be at least 3 inches in diameter. That is a much larger diameter than that of oboe and bassoon tube cane.
I have an Uhl machine and have had very limited success with clipping about 2 mm off the tip of a commercial reed that doesn't work and redoing the reed on the Uhl machine.
In nearly all cases the reed that doesn't vibrate at first, doesn't vibrate after being remade (sometimes remade 5 or 6 times).
This confirms what double reed players always claim - that it is all about the quality of the cane. Many good oboists/bassoonists I know keep the cane they know to be good to the side. When they need excellent cane, for a concerto or important chamber music, they will make their reeds from the batch of cane they know to be excellent.
The other day I asked the principal oboist in my orchestra what percent of her cane is good and she replied about half. If clarinetists made reeds from cane, 50% of which was good, the percentage of good reeds produced would be a lot higher than the current percentage of good reeds yielded from a box of commercial clarinet reeds.
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Simon Aldrich
Clarinet Faculty - McGill University
Principal Clarinet - Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal
Principal Clarinet - Orchestre de l'Opera de Montreal
Artistic Director - Jeffery Summer Concerts
Clarinet - Nouvel Ensemble Moderne
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Author: Daniel Frazelle
Date: 2008-10-25 18:39
You can use any type of blank, really, but I've had the best success with RDG and Rigotti reed blanks. I feel that it is better to make the blanks from a tube, but you can still get superior results from commercial blanks. Those two are well-suited, but I'm sure other good matches can be found for the individual. Interestingly, I've had much better success with pre-made blanks on the Uhl machine than on the Reedual.
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Author: Tilly
Date: 2008-10-26 23:43
I made reeds for about twenty years with a Reedual and used blanks from MARCA (www.marca-france.com) Usually the blanks were reasonably good quality and average thickness. I don't know if they still sell blanks
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Author: jmclarinet
Date: 2008-11-06 10:40
Hi everybody!
I use to make my reeds by hand and I buy the blanks from Canyes Xilema.
They have very good cane from the Mediterranean area and make the blanks with Ulh Technik technology.
You can contact www.canyesxilema.com
See you!
JM
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