 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: nbclarinet
Date: 2017-01-11 22:24
Hello all,
I'm thinking about joining the growing wave of people ditching cane reeds for good. My problem is that I'm sort of inbetween strengths. Right now I have a European signature 4 and 4.25.
The 4 was the perfect strength out of the box and the 4.25 is just a tad stuffy. My question to those of you who have converted is: Do you find that they have a break in period where they drop in strength? Or if not, how long can they be played before they start to feel softer?
NB
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Author: echi85
Date: 2017-01-12 00:01
I've been using them exclusively since September of last year. In my experience, consistency is a bit of an issue with the reeds. Usually I get reeds that play fantastic out of the box but I have gotten a few that were very hard for the strength. For example, I have eight 4.25 reeds and have had to send back 2 of them because they didn't respond as well as the others. On the other hand, I have one of the 8 that plays very much on the soft side.
Legere was kind enough to send me some sample 3.75 and 4 reeds and I found them to have the same consistency problems as the reeds I purchased. Having said all of that, I think at this point I am a convert. The ones that are perfect are incredibly satisfying to play.
I have found that they do have a slight break in period. I'm not sure if this is the reed actually changing or if I am understanding that specific reed better. I have had some start soft and become about right in terms of resistance. I have not had a stuffy one become softer. You can try dipping them into boiling water for about 20 seconds. It will be immediately softer but should recover to close the same strength within a few hours. I've yet to try boiling them for a longer period of time to see if they will permanently soften.
My advice would be to have a few of them going at a time understanding that all of them play differently from each other.
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Author: gwie
Date: 2017-01-12 04:05
I have four 3.5 strength reeds that I have been rotating for the past couple weeks, and they are surprisingly consistent. I'm still waiting for two more to come to me on a strength exchange (I found 3.25 just a bit too soft for me). I guess I'll know in another month or so how well they hold up to regular playing every day.
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Author: Ed
Date: 2017-01-12 06:05
I would prefer to go with the reed that is a little more free blowing where I had more flexibility.
A couple of things about dipping them in boiling water- I had heard to try a second or two, but I am not sure if I would want to risk ruining a reed unless it was completely unplayable. I don't think Legere recommends this.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2017-01-12 09:26
Legere reeds can be softened using boiling water, but only the tip of the reed should be dipped and only for 2-3 seconds. The reed will soften by about a half strength, and over the next few hours will gradually return to about a quarter less than where it started. It will stay at this level for the life of the reed. Contrary to what I have heard from reed gurus, Legeres can be scraped, but it must be done with a very sharp scraper. They can also be clipped, again using a very sharp tool that gives a perfect cut.
Tony F.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-01-15 07:56
I have been finding some variability in the ease of response among Euros of the same strength. I haven't found them to change over time, except that I do think that through a single session they feel slightly softer after a few minutes of playing. I don't know whether it's because I'm adjusting to the reed over the first few minutes of a playing session or because the warmth in my mouth actually softens it.
I have found that, contrary to conventional wisdom (excepting Tony's comment above), they can be adjusted within limits. I haven't tried traditional scraping (I assume Tony means on the tapered surface as you would do with a cane reed). I haven't found balance to be a problem with Legeres, so scraping on one side or the other doesn't seem necessary, but to bring down the stuffiness you mention of some of the reeds, I've found I can lightly sand the flat side. As with cane, when doing this I avoid running the tip over the abrasive, since Legeres seem to be very (maybe too) flexible in the tip area as they come. I've been using 320 wet-or-dry abrasive because I already have it handy (from using it with ATG). I wouldn't think a coarser grit would be good, but maybe something finer would still work.
I know Legere has an exchange policy, which I haven't actually tried. It seems easier, if there are workable adjustment techniques to improve the less responsive ones, to work on the reeds than to call Legere for an RA number, pack them up and ship them back (I assume at the player's expense) every time I get one that's stuffy.
Karl
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