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: Alta Reeds

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-08-06 02:34

WhitePlainsDave wrote:

>
> I think we can both agree Karl to give the Alta's a bit more of
> the "college try" before closing the book on them.

Actually my second impression of the reeds themselves tonight is much better. Last night was a hurried affair before a rehearsal - slap the reed onto the mouthpiece, hold it with my right thumb and play a few left-hand notes. Tonight I wasn't in a hurry so, I'm sure, wet them a little longer and played them with a ligature holding them instead of my thumb and both of my hands on the clarinet, and they actually did play much better. And none of them was unplayable, if just getting the notes to speak is the criterion (back to your original point). So the jury's still out on the reeds, although the price puts me off, since they still don't seem to blow the other reeds out of the market. At best, they may turn out to be very good.

But I still don't see any relevance in what the moisture content was when they were packed. I'm unpacking them before I play a single note. Once I play on them even for a few minutes, they hold far more moisture than they shipped with, and I don't store them in controlled humidity (another over-discussed topic I hope to avoid right now), so they dry between uses.

Maybe interestingly, they were each unbalanced and will need at least some work to play well. But they weren't consistently heavier on one side. Some were right-heavy, some were left-heavy. I have no idea why yet.

Karl

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics