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Re: Can old reeds make you sick?

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2019-03-08 21:23

It's always hard to know where you actually contacted the bug that made you sick. You're exposed to viruses and bacteria all the time and most of them are either not harmful or are overcome by your immune system before they cause symptoms. I guess if you got sick three or four times, each the same time interval after having played on one of those old-timers, you could make the case that the box is infected with something. But in the end, you'd never know if you had gotten sick after playing on reeds from a just-bought box or if the germs came from someone you had dinner with or from something you handled.

I've never knowingly been sickened by the older reeds that I kept from the '70s and '80s. I don't know why it would be any more likely than getting sick from something in a reed bought in the last 10 years or even 10 months. I would guess that a pathogen eating away at the reed over any extended length of time (certainly 40 years) would cause some kind of visible destruction of the reed - broken down fibers, gray, green or yellow stains, etc..

Karl

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