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Re: Reed Blanks

Author: David Niethamer
Date: 2009-07-30 00:53

I've been making my reeds since 1981 and playing on them professionally. Until 2002, I was a principal player in a regional orchestra - 38 weeks of concerts a season.

About the cane - yes, get good cane, because otherwise you won't know whether the problem is with your reed making skills or crappy cane. BUT - what is "good cane"? I bought a kilo of Reeds Australia cane (tubes) about 10 years ago. I made a few blanks and reeds, and hated the way they played and sounded, so I threw the box in a corner of my studio and kept using my first choice - Gonzales tubes. From time to time, I'd give out a few tubes of RA cane to students and colleagues who wanted to learn to make reeds, or try new cane. Last summer, running a little low on Gonzales tubes, I decided to try some of the RA tubes again. They now work much better after "aging" (drying out in my overheated studio!), and I play on those reeds some. So, try lots of cane. If you find some you like, stock up. A kilo of tubes is a lifetime supply! It takes at least half a dozen tubes to get a general sense of how a particular batch of tubes is going to work out, in my experience.

Both Gonzales and Reeds Australia sell tubes. Gonzales only lists bassoon tubes on their web site, but those are very similar in size to a clarinet tube, so it should be OK. They have always been very helpful when I had a question, so I'd bet that they would be able to get you the size of tubes that you want.

About blanks - make your own from tubes. I worked from commercial blanks for a long time before trying to make blanks for myself from the tubes. I could have kicked myself once I started working from the tubes. You have a lot more control over the shape and dimension of the blank if you make yourself. All it takes is 4-5 different strengths of sandpaper, a hacksaw, and a utility knife to reduce one tube to 8 blanks, which takes about 60-90 minutes.

For the last decade, I've used a DeLutis "Reed Machine" to make reeds. I also use his tools for planing and shaping blanks. Not quite as good as making them by hand, but I've gotten lazy in my old age. Before that I used a ReeDuAl, which has its own set of issues, but which will work. I'm a bit of a klutz with tools, so making reeds completely by hand with knives and files is beyond my skills. I've read about it in Stubbins, seen John Mohler and Stanley Hasty do it at conferences, but it's not for me. Others have mentioned other makes of reed making equipment here - but I have no experience with these, so I won't comment. Search the archives.

The main point - if you can adjust a commercial reed successfully, you can get close with the ReeDuAL or other machine and do the final steps by hand and make a good reed.

I find I get 3-6 good reeds per tube - 2-3 that I'd play in a concert, and 2-3 that I can practice on for a good while before they die. Properly broken in, a hand made reed will last a long time. That's what attracted me to making reeds (instead of buying endless boxes) in the first place.

Useful books - Ronald Vazquez's "Handbook for the Clarinet Reed Maker" (or some such) has a lot of good information from an author who did this regularly and played his reeds professionally in a military band. Larry Guy's "
Selection, Care and Adjustment of Single Reeds" is another good book, as is the "ReedMate Guide" (exact title?). you may not agree with everything, but these three will give you a lot of great information.

Good luck, and have fun!

David
niethamer@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/index.html

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Reed Blanks new

clariknight

2009-07-22 01:05