 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Julia
Date: 2002-09-18 20:53
HI--
I did a search on this, but I didn't find too much, or what I was looking for. Have any of you had experience with humidifying your reeds? If you have, what has been your reaction and what kinds of things did you learn from doing it?
Thanks a lot!
Julia
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Author: Clairgirl
Date: 2002-09-18 22:17
Too much humidity can be a bad thing...you wouldn't want your reeds to mold. Some people advise using small wet sponges, but I would rather use cigar humidifiers since they are less time and mess. Where I go to school many people keep their reed cases in ziplock bags with some sort of humidifier in it. I've also seen people store their reeds in rubbermaid containers, resting them on a glass plaque. To be honest, i tried this for a while and I didn't notice any real difference between storing them humidified and storing them without humidity. Whatever works! (;
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Author: Nick
Date: 2002-09-18 22:45
Julia.. I noticed your email traces to SU. Are you from the area? I live on the outside east end of the city toward Dewitt, in a neighborhood called Eastwood.
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Author: Robert
Date: 2002-09-18 22:46
I spent a lot of money on a portable cigar humidifier for my reeds. I kept them at 60-70% humidity, and can't say I noticed any real improvement!!
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2002-09-19 02:53
Nick - I am a Syracuse Grad 67'(got smart and moved as far away from snow as possible - Atlanta now)
Rather than humidifying, a lot of pro's that I know keep their reeds at a constant 45-55% Relative Humidity. At this RH mold does not grow and the longevity (a subjective assessment) seems to be improved versus enhanced RH. It is easier to keep a constant low RH with desiccant packs in a sealed container (or some fancy humidor with speciality chemical humidity sinks) than to keep them in a humidified state which might range from 70-90% RH without a reasonably good way to control it. A RH meter (wholesale on EBay for cigar humidors at about U.S. $5.00) or a chemical indicator strip are a good thing to have both in your clarinet case and also in your reed storage container. Some like myself are compulsive about such things but many great players do not use all these gadgets - personal choice dictates your level of fiddling with Nature.
The Doctor
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2002-09-19 16:11
As usual, L O H gives us VG advice, I pretty much concur. Having only 3 [inexpensive] "weather centers", temp, bar. press and RELATIVE humidity, plus the Weather channel and w.com, we do stay informed!. But with the many inaccuracies [non-linearities?], such as low bar. press last nite, 29.3"!! [sea-level-corrected, tornado weather!] being disagreed with by 29.5" elsewhere, averaging is helpful. Back to reed humidification. Since our rel hum [except for cold winter] only varies between 45-55%, [highest in kitchen and bathrooms, nachurly], with temp quite constant, I see no need for additional efforts. After playing and drying out the bore and mp/reed of my bass, I just leave the case open, reed on mp, uncapped, to equilibrate slowly with the house atmosphere. Seems to work well for all of my horns and reeds. Just thots from my instrumentation-measurement experience. Don
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