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: Humidity

Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2017-10-12 03:09

Are the plastic bags air tight? Actually it doesn't matter. Do NOT use them. Sounds like HEAVEN for mold to grow and lung issues in your body, plus mouth and tongue fungus. You do not need plastic bags, nor humidity at these high levels. Reeds will play wherever you live if they are good. If they are not good and you don't know how to fix them or often they cannot be fixed, even by a master reed maker throw them out.

There is no normal range. In places like Chicago, all of Canada, in the winter, the humidity is zero. It's frozen everywhere. The rings on the bells of horns spin because of the wood being so dried out. The rings between the joints fall off. In the summer months most of southern California it never rains, with less than 15 percent humidity. I still have to play everyday, often 4 hours and more.

I personally feel you might be taking the reed situation too far. To the point of getting yourself physically sick with mold. You may not see the mold, but it is there. I'm a reed master so reeds need to be treated correctly. If they are wet all of the time they won't play very well. They WILL grow mold. They need to dry out and rest. Reeds also suck a lot of the time. You usually can't make a bad reed with poor fibers and weak cell structure become anything more than a bad reed. Throw it out. Think of a great wine and a really bad wine. Cane works the same way. In fact great wine and great cane are often found in the same areas.

The BEST reeds still come from the Var region of France. But if this area is hit with too much rain, or not enough rain the cane will suffer for the whole year. Same with wine. Cane from other countries just doesn't last very long. Sometimes maybe a week sometimes less. If you are lucky and the year was a good year, maybe 2 weeks. But the Var region is special. Most of the time you can get 30 days to 4 months out of 1 reed. Mitchell Lurie was sometimes able to get 9 months or more out of 1 reed. His reeds were from the Var region only. How do I know this? I made his reeds for 15 years. A total of around 15 million reeds or so. I made other reeds as well, but I was completely in charge of his reeds. They were not pro line reeds. They were geared for students and they were great. Although a lot of pros bought his reeds. I selected only the finest VAR cane, sometimes 4 years ahead before the cane was ever cut into reeds. I hand picked the best of the Var cane. Such as knowledge of knowing where the cane was facing the sun, how it was dried, looking at the fibers with microscopes, and much more. Then the reeds were cut twice for perfection using 2 diamonds spinning at 15000 RPM's. This is only just a glimpse of what I know about cane and reeds so take advantage of the health dangers you are facing. I know about these dangers.

So too much humidity will kill the reeds and maybe kill you with lung infections and mouth fungus. Do you want your teeth to fall out? Your tongue to blister all of the time? Trouble breathing? Do not mess with humidity. You are out of your league.

Buy a book by Fred Ormand and learn how to adjust reeds. If the reeds cannot be adjusted throw the reeds out.

Hope this helps.

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