Author: huboboe
Date: 2012-09-21 04:23
Hi, Drew - Congrats on the lessons - that's a good way to focus your attention on the details...
A couple of thoughts looking at your photos: the surface texture of the blade looks smooth, so your knife is sharp, the most important single thing about reed making. The cuts are symmetrical, so your basic concept and knife technique are accomplished.
You have a skinny line of bark down the rails. That's the blueprint I use as well, with the thickest part of the heart at .50mm to no less than .43mm. More wood than that inhibits the vibration in the back...
What do you hear when you crow the reed? My guess is that it is a bit tippy, more 'Tweeee' than the gargly rattle of the 'ideal' reed, but looks can be deceiving...
I think of the blend as being the most important part of the reed. The back, if you cut off the tip, couldn't possibly vibrate with human wind pressure. The tip by itself vibrates easily and freely but has a bright, harsh, uncomplex sound. The blend is the ramp that channels the energy from the free-blowing tip up to the back and drives the lower frequency vibrations in the back. In order to do the best job, the blend needs to be a smooth ramp rather than a jagged staircase, and that's what caught my eye.
The attached, very badly drawn, sketch shows what I'm talking about. The imaginary line at the base of the blend is, nominally, at 66mm from the bottom of the staple. [Unless you prefer reeds longer or shorter than 70mm. Adjust accordingly]
The blend on the left is what I see on your photo, about the same distance around the arc of the blend. The sketch on the right is the idealized version. You will note two differences, first that the nose on the idealized version extends further out into the length of the tip and second, that the sides of the blend do, indeed blend into the sides of the reed.
That little, tiny bit of cane where the curve of the blend meets the edge of the reed can be the difference between a reed that is responsive and one that isn't. From that point, where the knife is almost vertical to the cane, the shape of the blend should sweep more gradually to the center of the tip. You can then adjust (over time as previous posters have pointed out) the angle, or slope, of the blend to achieve the balance tou are looking for. The more gradual the slope, the more the back inhibits the tip. The steeper the slope the more freedom the tip has until it is detached completely from the back. The trick is to dust the slope of the blend, increasing the freedom of the tip until it balances the back at the level of resistance you wish. If it plays well but is too 'hard', take some wood out of the back and re-balance the tip. And, as others pointed out, do this over time. And leave the reed a bit on the difficult side. As it breaks in it will become more tractible and mellow and your chops will thank you as well.
More on this topic later, but enough of my opinions for now. jhoyla's suggestion of raked light is an absolute must for reed making, in my book. Raking light shows all the surface details that are obscured with direct or transmitted light, though both of those are important, too. And Ron Ford is absolutely right: Martin Schuring's website
http://www.public.asu.edu/~schuring/Oboe/Reedguide.html
is a wonderful resource. I say that not only because he's a great player and teacher, but because the reed dimensions he posts on his site are exactly the same ones I developed over my own long career. <grin>
Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com
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