 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Carcamalisio
Date: 2016-04-13 17:46
If boiling a synthetic reed makes it softer, freeze it would make it harder? Or how do you do it? Im talking about legere reeds. Thanks in advance!
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-04-13 18:10
You can carefully sand the tip down to make the reed a fraction of a millimetre shorter - I did this on my bari sax reed which did the trick.
Sand it with the reed perpendicular to the abrasive paper (or board) and make sure you maintain the curve of the tip. Use another reed to check you've got the curve of the tip right.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2016-04-13 21:36)
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Author: Curinfinwe
Date: 2016-04-13 19:31
When mine are getting a bit soft, I dunk it in cold water for a second or two- longer if that doesn't work. It would depend how much harder you need it to be though.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2016-04-14 02:52
If your clipping tool is sharp enough, synthetic reeds can be clipped successfully. Only clip the tiniest sliver.
Tony F.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-04-14 18:54
Just make sure your reed trimmer blade is nice and sharp and will cut cleanly.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2016-04-15 00:49
Should be no trouble to clip ..only take a hair off though because they are very
sensitive to clipping...I had no trouble clipping with a standard Cordier Bb trimmer!
David Dow
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2016-09-20 19:37
I recently had the need to trim several varieties of synthetic reeds- Legere (my own old stock), Bravo (a failed experiment with a net cost of $0), and Forestone (ditto with net cost $20 but I have 2 samples for future experiments).
I destroyed a cheap Chinese "that auction site" trimmer in the process, to where it would no longer even nicely cut cane. On plastic, it just kind of made an indentation.
So I found a used high quality Cordier trimmer for about $12- a bargain. And it works well on synthetics and super on cane- for now. In fact, I think it makes my cane reeds play much better than my old cheapo did- so this was a positive change all around. So it really may matter how good your trimmer is. I think I'd spring $50+ on a new good trimmer at this point- if I needed to, rather than get another cheapo.
Very hard in the clarinet business to know which items require spending $$ or $$$ rather than $, vs the other things for which it just doesn't matter. And it may vary per player. So glad that some of you can just spend whatever you want. (Even if you can- though- it may not be that great an idea.)
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
Post Edited (2016-09-20 19:38)
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Author: TomS
Date: 2016-09-21 01:11
I suspect part of the problem with reeds like the Legere is that the material is amorphous or the same, through and through ... it doesn't have the changes in density and structure through the cross-section. It cannot vibrate like a real cane reed, I think. This might account, in part, for the generally lower playing pitch, especially in the higher notes.
We know Legere uses different density of plastic for each strength reed. If they could make a sandwich of different density materials, distributed like found in a cane reed, fused together and cut to size, that might approximate a "real" reed more closely.
Clipping the tip will work, but usually you gotta re-profile the reed, and the plastic Legere uses in pretty tough ... I usually don't mess with them.
I can take microscopic powder off one side of a cane reed in 10 seconds, and it makes all the difference.
Now, you might try playing with an ice cube in your mouth, that might make your plastic reeds play harder!
Tom
Post Edited (2016-09-21 01:13)
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Author: Mojo
Date: 2016-09-21 17:58
Before you trim or sand the tip, try moving the Reed up a bit past the mouthpiece tip to see if it is better there. If you find a spot you like, shorten the Reed by that much.
MojoMP.com
Mojo Mouthpiece Work LLC
MojoMouthpieceWork@yahoo.com
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Author: Sean.Perrin
Date: 2016-09-25 04:01
If it is totally unusable to you, you could try a sharp reed clipper. But you need to understand you might ruin it and you will void your warranty.
Founder and host of the Clarineat Podcast: http://www.clarineat.com
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