Author: Oboe Craig
Date: 2012-05-01 00:30
For me, the hard Vs. soft cane becomes a challenge to get the hard cane easy and responsive, and the soft cane responsive enough.
I try to think in terms of reed responsiveness and resistance and usually find the 'softer' cane needs a shorter overall reed and the harder cane works with a thinner heart area and a slightly longer scrape.
That on the same gouge and shape (RDG 11mm bed for gouge and a .60 center) and on my beloved Brannon X-Narrow (a wide shaper).
Depending on cane tube diameter, the gouge dimensions alter a bit naturally, and 10. - 10.5 Vs 10.5 - 11 mm diameters also influence the resistance.
I find the smaller tip opening from the 10.5 - 11 mm cane easiest to convince to play with less resistance, but the best of the best still come from 10.0 - 10.5, with a lower yield of performance-worty reeds.
All in all, I prefer denser ('harder') cane, but can get decent reeds from a range of cane. The 'harder' stuff tends to last longer, and I mean much longer in use once a decent reed develops.
When teaching young players (a while back), I could get them up to speed faster on 'pro-level' reeds and a well adjusted oboe of whatever quality.
Problem was, after me, they had no good source of reeds of similar quality.
Good news is for today's students and oboe non-reed makers, there are more good sources for reeds, and you just need to get happy paying the costs for a good reed.
$25 - $35 per good pro reed, and deal with that.
For instance, for a working stiff (corporate pro, lawyer, doc, computer programmer, etc.) making $65 - $100 per hour, buying a reed Vs. spending 20 hours trying to make a good one, and going through $40 worth of prepped cane, is a great investment and a great deal.
Post Edited (2012-05-01 00:32)
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