Author: SecondTry
Date: 2021-05-09 07:19
I've always had misgivings about reed copying devises for the simple paradox that copying a wonderfully playing reed's contours on to another piece of cane is exactly what you DON'T want to do, unless that second piece of cane is identical to the first....
....which it isn't, thank you mother nature.
Sure, reeds made from identical stock may be closer in consistency than a field's stock across years, or two different fields (cultivated/aged at two different times,) but it seems to me that short of measuring instruments that test a reed's strength, which can include anything as simple as one's own testing, to something as complex as controlled bursts of air that measure a reed's flex, not unlike the optometric machinery used to determine ocular pressure (i.e. glaucoma) that I understand Vandoren uses in principle, matching physical profiles is only a starting point.
Eric, that master of the craft you refer to, I am forced to ask myself, "at what cost did the time to learn come at compared to playing ability, if any," and "how much better are his reeds than those he could adjust from the factory?."
I'm no genius at this stuff. I spent an afternoon learning the ATG principles of reed adjustment years ago and went from few to most reeds in a box being acceptable to me. I did not need to learn reed making from scratch and my results have been reported by others as well.
Then again, I've never played this guy's reeds you describe Eric, and your OP isn't about advocating this, so much as just harmlessly comparing notes with others who have done this. 
These thoughts are by no means negatively directed at anyone. Who could put a price tag on consistently good reeds when we all value things differently?
But I must say that given better production reeds than those produced for prior generations of players, plus synthetics, plus the value of time of young players putting in the practice hours trying to land their first job, I have to question the time spent on this endeavor, much as I can appreciate (as a woodworker hobbyist) the work of a craftsman at it.
Post Edited (2021-05-09 07:19)
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