Author: rdc
Date: 2018-01-05 19:55
Arnoldstang wrote: “Removing cane from the heart shouldn’t make it lie flatter on the facing in any case.”
Nellsonic wrote “I take this to mean the heart of the reed is over the window of the mouthpiece, and so doesn't really need to be touched at all to make the reed lay flat against the mouthpiece. Another interesting, under-discussed, and obvious point upon reflection.”
Here are my observations about reed warpage from my experience. I’m well aware that your experience may differ.
1. The warpage we’re talking about is convex warpage perpendicular to the length of the reed. I believe it has two causes. The first is allowing the reed to dry (quickly) with the flat side down on a flat surface causing the edges of the reed to dry first and curl upward. The second is the portion of the reed over the window warping toward the moisture inside the mouthpiece while playing.
2. The first cause of warpage may be minimized by a number of strategies. I personally do not wet the stock of the reed to minimize this area warping on the mouthpiece while playing and during storage. In addition, I store reeds in cases that have a flat surface with grooves and with Boveda pack humidification, but I don’t by any means think this is the only way to store reeds. I like Karl’s (kdk) concept of a reed case that stores reeds on their sides, and would love to try one of those. In addition, if I had to store reeds in a case with a totally flat surface, I would devise some means to dry the reeds flat side up before putting them away.
3. My belief is that the second type of warpage will occur no matter what you do. Interestingly, if not corrected during playing, it will tend to reverse itself when the reed is dried and stored properly so as not to induce the first type of warpage.
4. In my experience this second type of warpage does cause some response issues with the reed, even when the reed still passes the mouthpiece suction test. In light of the comments above by Arnoldstang and Nellsonic, my opinion is that trying to correct it especially toward the tip of the reed is unnecessary and will greatly weaken the reed.
5. What seems to help for me is to take out some of this warpage from the beginning of the mouthpiece window to the beginning of the facing curve, approximately where my lip applies pressure to the reed. I use a reed geek tool perpendicular to the back of the reed held up toward an overhead light so I can see the amount of warpage present and to keep the tool centered on the middle of the reed where the greatest warpage occurs. I don’t remove all of the warpage, but removing some of it seems to restore the response. Of course, if overdone, the reed will be weakened.
This is long. I hope it makes sense and is a help to someone.
R. Chest
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The Clarinet BBoard
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