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Re: Oboe Reeds, which are the best? Problems with flat reeds >>>

Author: Dutchy
Date: 2005-07-05 18:51

My experience, FWIW: Been playing oboe for 4 months now; I've had good luck so far with both Fox and Giardinelli brand commercial reeds (haven't gotten around to buying reeds off eBay yet, although I intend to when I feel like I "deserve" better reeds, like when it's clear that the "oboe thing" is going to "take" :D ). The Giardinelli reeds tend to be more open and more "honky", but maybe that's because I've been playing the Fox reeds more.

The two reeds from LaVoz that I got from Giardinelli weren't even the same length! [boggles silently] And the sides were sealed with--obviously--clear nail polish. I've heard of home reedmakers using nail polish in a pinch instead of goldbeaters skin, but I never expected to find a commercial manufacturer using it. Guess I've got a lot to learn about commercial reeds. :D And it was just slopped on, too, big wodges of goop on the sides, not like the way you'd carefully dab it on at home.

I have also found, FWIW, that the reeds (from both Fox and Giardinelli) that were continually and annoyingly flat a couple months ago, when I was first starting, are now mysteriously "not-flat", and I can only credit my (slowly) developing embouchure, getting better at tweaking the pitch, I guess.

I too tried to "adjust" one of the Fox reeds, early on, by clipping the tip as advised, and merely succeeded in ruining what it is now clear would have been a perfectly decent reed. My advice would be to use extreme caution before taking an Exacto knife to your supposedly "flat" reed. Because it may not be the reed's fault.