The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: Thinning End Of Reed

Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2016-10-22 08:14

Actually, there are 2 types of reed tips. The French and the German tips. With a few variations of the theme. For example when I made the Mitchell Lurie reeds the tips were very thin and the same with the Hemke line of sax reeds. About 0.005". I kind of prefer a bit thicker tip. around 0.006" or even 0.007". The German reeds are often double this thickness at 0.012".

The German mouthpiece are usually much less open. For example the Vandorn M13 is 1.01mm's. I feel this is too close. However the German mouthpieces are about 0.85mm's. So you can kind of see how the tips of the reeds and the mouthpiece openings compare.

The Great Robert Marcellus played on a 1.11 to a 1.10mm tip opening. He palyed around with mouthpieces alot.

Iggie Gennus and Harold Wright, both double lip players used around 1.03mm's. I feel this is about as close as you should get for a mouthpiece opening. Eddie Danials is around 1.03 as well. Some of the players whom I won't say are using tip openings around 1.20mm's with stiff reeds.

I didn't answer your question or comment, but these are kind of the basics.

I don't like sanding the bottoms of the reeds unless they are really warped and in this case I only sand 2/3rd of the reeds completely avoiding the 1/3rd area of the tip, usually using 600 or 400 grit sandpaper. I feel that finer sandpaper around 1000 grit puts a shine on the reeds and then the reeds don't vibrate correctly. Like my last post, you can learn to feel when a reed is warping. All reeds do warp, so you have to know when, by feel, and the sound of the reed, when it's time to sand.

Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces

Yamaha Artist 2015

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics