 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: sarah
Date: 2001-11-09 01:12
I just opened a new box of regular vandorens and had started testing each one. I played each for a few minutes, then lined them up according to which one played the best. This was the ONLY thing I was lining up by. When I was all done however, I noticed a strange pattern. The wost reeds were the ones that looked the worst. The were discolored. I thought that looks had nothing to do with how they play so now I am a bit confused. Was this just a coinsedence or has this happened to anyone else?
sarah
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Author: donald nicholls
Date: 2001-11-09 09:23
unfortunately it's not as simple as "if it looks like this (lopsided, green/grey etc) it's a bad reed" but it's also not as simple as "if it looks like that (golden cane, symetrical etc) it's a good reed".
i know that's not very helpful, but after all- it is reeds we're talking about here!
donald
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Author: Emms
Date: 2001-11-09 14:01
i do find that reeds with the grain 'most even', ie in a straight line, looks the same both sides are better. Also if they look a bit on the green side they're not so good, but more golden ones play better. This is in my experience.
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Author: sarah
Date: 2001-11-09 14:16
I wasn't judging them on how they looked, it just happened this way. I didn't notice anything about even grain, it was just the color that I noticed.
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2001-11-09 20:44
I think you had a random circumstance that appeared to be an orderly pattern. In my years of fooling around with reeds, I've never been able to establish a strong link between the visual aspects of a reed (grain, bark pattern, etc.) and the playing qualities. I've had many a beautiful reed that played like doo-doo, and many an ugly duckling that played like a swan.
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Author: Suzanne
Date: 2001-11-09 21:53
My experience:
I have never had a reed that looked bad (brown, green, coarse grain, uneven texture) end up playing well in the long run;
I have had a fair share of reeds that look good, not play well;
Basically all of my best reeds, look like good reeds, with a *very* occasional exception.
I also play Vandoren traditionals.
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Author: Micaela
Date: 2001-11-10 16:01
I'm going to be playing on one of two reeds at my youth orchestra concert tomorrow: a very ugly gold and grayish striped reed (a Vandoren traditional #3) or a perfect gold one (a V12 #3.5). They're both great reeds. I somehow doubt if there is any correlation- actually I haven't decided which I'm playing yet because the gold one is a little unreliable in this weather.
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