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VD Optimum question

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2015-09-28 02:47

I've been using an Optimum ligature mostly consistently for the past few months. I'm interested to know about anyone else's experience with this ligature regarding warped reeds.

When I first began to use it, I preferred the plate with the dots on it. I liked the vibrancy and responsiveness it seemed to allow my reeds. But I began having trouble with warped reeds - a problem I haven't had since my college days (a long time ago). Only, after a little more time I realized that the reeds were not warped when I began playing them for a rehearsal or a practice session. They seemed to be warping as I played them. Checking these reeds after they'd dried, I found that they were once again flat. With a little experimentation I found that of the three supplied plates only the one with the horizontal ridges top and bottom seemed not to cause the reeds to warp.

Over the summer my partner in the clarinet section of one of the orchestras I play in, who also uses an Optimum, mentioned in passing that he'd had a problem identical to mine with the same two plates and had also settled on the plate with the horizontal ridges.

Before my experience and his confirmation I wouldn't have thought this was possible.

Now, at a lesson just the other night, I believe the same thing happened to a student's reed. He also uses an Optimum and had been using the one with vertical ridges. The reed started out vibrant and quite good-sounding. About 15 minutes into the lesson he was struggling to do something, so I tried his clarinet to narrow down the source of the problem. The reed clearly felt warped and, when I tested it for suction, didn't hold at all.

The only explanation I can guess, which is pure conjecture, is that the dots and the vertical ridges are putting pressure on the reed at a point close enough to the reed's center that the outer edges are actually encouraged to bend upward (no, I don't over-tighten the lig).

So I'm curious to know if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon.

Karl

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