Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2010-06-25 20:23
I want to share my further evaluation of Forestone Bb Clarinet reeds.
Comparing the strength numbers with my drawer full of Vandoren V12's I ordered a Forestone evaluation kit with reeds numbered around 3.5. These turned out to be too soft, and Forestone sent me harder reeds to try.
I got an F4-1/2 and 2 F5s.
The F4-1/2 is just about perfect, and the F5s are too hard. For the last couple of weeks, I've been "playing off" my F4-1/2 against a couple boxes of my current reeds along with some that are harder and some that are softer.
Its been tough to make a choice, but Forestone finally won out, and I've just ordered 2 more F4-1/2s and another F5. This means that my "quiver" of Forestones consists of an F4, and F5 and 3 F4-1/2s.
The softer reeds have been passed to students, and the other 2 F5s are in my teacher's clarinet case --in case he needs to really project over the orchestra. In trying out the 2-F5s, we (with him playing, as the 5s are too stiff for me to play comfortably) we noted a difference in the sound and responsiveness of the two reeds.
My professional colleagues are hard sells when it comes to moving away from the pain of cane, so the number 5's are in their back-up reed cases.
For my part, when rotating reeds in the practice room, the 4-1/2 Forestone always feels great when I put it on the mouthpiece. It is as different from my best cane reeds as my best cane reeds are from each other.
Bob Phillips
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The Clarinet BBoard
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