 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: BGBG
Date: 2015-06-29 03:08
I have two reeds 2 strength that I trimmed to eliminate chips. Now stiff and dont play. Need sand to thin. Using 400 grit paper do I sand both the flat side AND the shaved side to thin so will play? And should I use coarser paper? Going by trial and error for first time doing. Any tips would help.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-06-29 03:26
Two things happen when you clip a reed. The first is that you take away the thinnest portion of the tip leaving thicker material as the very tip (which is harder to make vibrate). The other thing that is happening is that you are making the vamp (the duck bill shaped part) shorter, so that there is less vibrating area left (making the reed even harder).
Traditionally one would only clip once (or twice at most) with the amount you clip being the thinnest possible shaving. Any more would cause the architecture of the reed (length of vamp vs total length of reed) to be too short (more like a chisel).
Without an exhaustive guide on reed making/shaping, I would say it will be easiest (but not necessarily successful) to work on sanding the flat side with the 400 grit (SLOWLY). Take a few swipes and try it - then repeat until it begins to play. You might even be able to judge how things are going by slightly flexing the tip carefully against your thumbnail.
I would guess though that if you took off enough reed to eliminate a good sized chip, the reed may be beyond bringing it back to life (the way you knew it). I would be content using this as a way to learn some valuable reed making/adjusting skills using a good manual (you need good diagrams and accurate descriptions of this process).
.............Paul Aviles
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2015-06-29 03:31
By trimming tip you have effectively shortened the tip portion so rather than thinning it you need to move the already thin tip area a little back towards the butt.
I would prefer to use a reed knife to do this as can be more selective in the area worked on but using say 400 grit try and avoid the very end area of the tip as far as possible.
For a reed that plays at correct strength but has a slightly chipped tip I would choose not to clip the end as reed will probably work better with a small chip than after being clipped.
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Author: BGBG
Date: 2015-07-03 02:16
Although I play only for myself and not with any one one else I still want to be as good as I can be and improve techniques and music. I though even if a reed started out bad, or became bad through accident or use, if gained some skill at trim, scrape, or sanding then maybe I could improve them enough to use. I have a bacic Rico 2 strength now that I marked Poor. There were 3 to start with and one was 'good' and other was 'fair'. The Poor one squeakes a lot, because of me or the reed. The good does not or only once in awhile.
I have a .001" caliper so I can tell what starting thicknesses are. I have 240, 320, and 400 grit wet/dry paper. Have coarser and finer also but this is what I am using. I do not have a reed knife but maybe someone could suggest an inexpensive but good one if that is not contradictory. I do not alter a reed unless already such that I dont want to use it, because then I am not ruining what is usable. But though I have usable and unsused reeds, I have 3 or 4 that I can practice on. Once I learn what do do and develop the skills. It makes sense to not thin the tip any more but try to move it toward butt.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2015-07-03 23:08
There are numerous books and articles on reed ajusting - some of them quite contradictory to what is in others!
Some do into great detail about microscopic areas of the reed and it's effect, other treat things rather more generallistically (or wholistically?)
Over the years I read every one I could access and used common sense to help abitrate between the differences.
Try all the techniques suggested that seem sensible to you and find what seems to work best for you - it takes quite some time.
You'll spoil a lot of reeds in the process but that's the only way to learn reed adjustment.
Been trying myself for over 50 years and not fully got there yet.
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