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Re: Reedmaking frustration

Author: mjfoboe
Date: 2014-01-22 13:26

"Mark, I can answer a few questions. I still get a crow on all of these reeds, and they blow fine before putting them in the oboe. There is nothing before play testing that gives them away as terrible reeds. Low note attack is non-existent, which is strange given the crow is pretty strong. There is no chance of playing long phrases with them. I'm too scared to play high notes given how they sound in the middle register. :0 They sound like they might have a leak, but I have never had leaking issues before, I have wired them and I have attempted to teflon tape any potential leak spots, to no avail. Clipping the tip does help a little, but not enough to be able to play them in public."

Hi ..

I play a long scrape reed so my advice may or may not apply to you.

This is my experience as a reed maker. I am not a professional by any means just a competent amateur who has always made his own reeds.

My reeds that play well have a core sound to the crow ,,, there really isn't much "rattle or extraneous vibrations" When I do get lots of noise - the reed is unbalanced and not finished.

If the low notes are not playing you may have too much wood in the heart/tip blend and the heart as well. I loosen up my low notes by scraping in that area.

High notes is the thinness of the tip in relation to the rest of the reed. If the blend is too abrupt you may get a shrill sound; especially if you thin out the tip to compensate for the thickness in the blend/heart area. You can also adjust the quality of the sound by taking more out of the windows and thinning the tip if everything else is on good proportions/balance.

If the reed is too hard or stuffy you may have too take more wood off the entire reed keeping everything in good proportion.

So it sound as if your reeds are not in proper proportions/balance.

Then again you play a short scrape reed and I do not know if my observations apply to your reed problems.

Mark

Post Edited (2014-01-22 18:28)

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