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Re: breaking in reeds

Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2018-03-27 15:10

With the Steuer reeds the cane is so good just slap one on and play it until it dies after a month to 4 months.

A lot of other cane is so bad people think that rotating the cane will add life. Usually not. If the cane is bad, nothing can be done to save it. Don't waste your time.

Myth has it that Vandoren and Rico get ALL of their cane from France, not true. They get it all over the world. So little now comes from France.

The best cane still comes from the Var region of France right next to the ocean where the winds blow the cane and make the fibers strong. Just like how some people work out everyday at the gyms.

The soil is special too, this is where great French wines come from.

So most of the cane does NOT come from France anymore, because this is now full of condos and beach front properties. Resort towns. The wonderful cane fields are long gone. But Steuer never sold out. They have plenty of great cane and they only use Var cane by the ocean.

The person that made reeds for 40 years for Vandoren left and went to Steuer because of the great cane so YOU are actually getting Vandoren reeds on steroids.

This is why you don't have to rotate reeds. The cane lasts and lasts for months. There is a break in period of about 3 day, where you have to keep wetting the Steuer reeds. Then the reeds settle down. This is due to the cane being cured for about 4 or 5 years. It's dry. Then look out, it is amazing.

I can't keep the reeds in stock. I'm always back ordered.

Yes I don't believe in rotating reeds when a reed plays great, because it will last a long time. As several of you know I worked at Rico and they made 25 million reeds a years so I saw some pretty horrible cane come through the doors. It's now so bad that very few players are using the Rico Reserve reeds, it's that bad. The reeds are horrible. Sales are way down, and a lot of stores don't even carry it anymore. Their top brand is slowly going away.

Oh, when I worked at Rico Vandoren ran out of cane and bought cane from Rico. And Rico has the worst cane ever.

Again, if the cane is bad, you can't make it good by rotating it. It's not gonna work. Sorry folks. If the fibers are weak and thin you can't make them strong. Just like working out. Your first day at the gym you surely can't press 200 pounds, your fibers can't handle it, but after 6 months maybe you can. This is what good soil and wind does, by the ocean to the Var cane.

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

Yamaha Artist 2015

Post Edited (2018-03-27 23:33)

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