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Re: Sanding a Reed

Author: Ken Lagace
Date: 2018-08-02 18:22

I hope you rotate the mouthpiece both ways to find which side needs work.

With due respect to Paul Aviles, I work a different way, since learning to make reeds from Kal Opperman in the 1960's.
It takes less skill and does less damage to sand the problem side with 400 grit Wet or Dry sandpaper. I have measured both 'ears' of the reed tips and found that one side can be thicker on some reeds by 2 thousandths of an inch!.
Just the dull side tip is vibrating so it is best to start on a quarter of an inch of the problem side tip, with just a few swipes.
A slight gouge from a knife there will let that part of the tip vibrate by it self at a high frequency and you know what that is.

Another easier fix is to align the dull sounding side a bit toward the center of the mouthpiece. Sometimes that is enough to balance the reed. I mark my reed with a small arrow and don' bother to work on it.

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