 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Gerry
Date: 2002-08-23 18:07
I am a senior who has decided to pick up the clarinet again after many, many years. I can still play some simple tunes but have to get to work on the scales and exercises again. I have found a fair number of old reeds. Some of these must date back close to 50 years. There are some Rico's, Vandoren's and a box of Populair #4 which may have been given to me. I don't play #4, mostly 2's or
2 ½. The question is, would these still be good. I have tried a couple, but since I am so out of practice, I really can't tell. I have bought a few new reeds to start practising again. There seems to be a slight difference but I can't really be sure. Should I keep these or just throw them away?
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-08-23 18:47
Put 'em on ebay. The same folks that pay upwards of $1000 for an old (oops, I mean vintage) mouthpiece, will hardly be able to control themselves when they find the corresponding old (oops, again, I mean vintage) reeds.
Go out and order your new car. The downpayment is assured...GBK
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Author: ron b
Date: 2002-08-24 04:17
Hi, Gerry
I also took up the horn again a couple of years ago after thirty or so years of looking at it once in a great while. I suppose, in reality, I got it out just to see how much the pads had deteriorated - decided they were too awful and put it away.
When I decided to play it again (after a re-pad of course), I discovered I still had half a box of(25) Selmer reeds. Although they'd aged at least thirty years, they acted just like ordinary reeds - much to my delight and relief. Well, I guess it's actually been about three or four years now since I started playing more or less regularly so I had to buy a box of reeds last year. I would have no reason to suspect your experience would be much different than mine.
If the bugs didn't eat 'em and they still vibrate, let 'er rip!!!
Mainly, I just have fun tootin' the thing
Hope you're doin' the same and I'm happy you decided to come back to making music.
Happy tootin' to ya, Gerry :]]]
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2002-08-25 05:08
Gerry: If GBK were to expire right now, it would require a team of experienced mortuary cosmetologists to conceal that horrid bruise on his face. It is there because he has stuck his tongue so far in his cheek it almost came through. He is generally most helpful on this BB, but on occasion he slips over into his alter-ego of Jester. (Hey, GBK: did you ever consider that an unemployed jester is nobody's fool?)
If you do try to sell those on eBay, they probably would not make such a big hit, as likely only about 6% of today's Clarinet players have ever heard of Populaire reeds. Now if you dug up an old Kaspar mouthpiece, surely it would be worth a minor fortune.
Even at that, were I you, I would eBay the Populaire #4s (or just give them to a friend) and keep the #2 Ricos and Vandys. A year or so sgo, I bought a few boxes of Roy J. Maier signature reeds on eBay for not much gelt. Wowee, those were some of my favorite reeds 40 years ago, and I don't think Selmer has sold them for perhaps 20 or 30 years. They play very well. Many reed purists claim today's cane is a pale shadow of the older stuff, and long aging doesn't hurt either. Your reeds may now play better than they did years ago.
Regards,
John
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-08-26 01:20
Gerry - welcome back to the wonderful world of the clarinet. I too, am a "born again clarinetist" (kind of rich coming from an athiest I know). The only major difficult I had was remembering the altissimo fingerings - fortunately the Yamaha web site has a wonderful link to their "standard" fingerings for the entire range up to top C - and it fits on one page. I also like their graphic of the clarinet - much easier for me to figure out than the obscure hyroglyphs that seem popular here.
If you'd like a link to the URL for the fingering chart, let me know - it worked fine for me.
diz
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Author: Gerry
Date: 2002-08-26 12:40
Thanks for your help. I will keep the softer reeds and work on them. Can save some money too. Also would appreciate the link for the fingering charts, Diz, I do have some somewhere but could use a simple, printable one to have in front of me.
Thanks again,
Gerry.
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