 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: mike
Date: 1999-07-05 02:50
How do you determine that a reed has reached the end of its use?
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Author: Lelia
Date: 1999-07-06 00:15
Reeds can fail in different ways, but often they start to squeak, chirp or whistle. Those are the easy ones to get rid of. The more difficult decisions come with the reeds that gradually quit responding well without any specific, obvious defect. Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting sloppy and forgetting how to play altissimo (often the first thing to go when a reed wears out). Then I realize I've had that reed for an awfully long time. An old reed gets softer than a young one, and can get too floppy to play the high notes. If the reed sounds all right, but you can see that the edge of the tip is starting to look ragged or chipped, or you notice that the heart of the reed is getting more translucent, almost transparent, then probably that reed won't last much longer (although I've had reeds last another 20 hours or so after they looked ready to croak!), so it's time to start breaking in another to take its place in the rotation. Old reeds often get a grainy look. Exposure to moisture pulls up the grain the same as on any other wood. Sometimes an old, grainy reed will smooth out and respond better if you polish it downgently with reed rush, from the base of the cut toward the tip.
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Author: chris
Date: 1999-07-06 00:40
Knowing when to toss a reed is the one thing I know notice I have trouble with. One thing that has seemed to help is to always have a new reed in the rotation so I know what a good reed should feel like.
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