Author: DrewSorensenMusic
Date: 2013-02-15 13:23
I will definitely keep the 3 windows in mind as I continue with new reeds.
In regards to lengthening the scrape for low notes, I feel like this technique also has the unpleasant side effect of making my reeds flat. Maybe some reeds I've made too long to start with. Lately I started marking exactly where I want my scrape to begin, namely 55mm. I'm not sure if this is a good starting place, but I don't think I've heard any reed maker say "start here". Anyhow, staring the scrape at 55mm has created some not so terrible reeds that are sharp even at 71mm. Good, I can work with that. I couldn't work with flat. So I lengthened the back down a mm to 54mm, and it dropped the pitch to near 440, and it's still 71mm. Perfect. Now the reed is raucous for some reason, but I don't believe it's because of lengthening the back. The purpose of this particular reed was to just get something up to pitch, no matter how it sounded, so I did some non conventional things, and I think I probably took too much cane from the rails.
So I'm pretty happy with where I'm at with my knowledge of tipwork, blend, and heart. Pitch is the biggest concern right now. If you saw what I did to some reeds it would probably make you cringe, but I don't know what I'm doing, so I try, fail, and learn. I feel pitch is a lengthy topic, as it seems to be effected not only by the direct scrape, but by what has been done to the areas above it. I would assume this is the reason why so many reeds look very different.
Drew S.
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