 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: Jim22
Date: 2015-04-15 06:32
Well, no indication yet that I am going to be a brilliant reed maker! My first reed looks more or less like a reed, but plays like a stick. 
I suppose this is not particularly unexpected. Last weekend I tied three reeds, each one more accurately than the previous one. Tonight I tried scraping the first of them. It started out slightly long, and tied maybe 1mm too far, possibly past the end of the staple. It appeared to close up on the sides, but maybe not perfectly. After scraping, it doesn't really crow, just makes a super high pitch whistle. A couple times I had the tip thin enough to just peep, which it did at about a D#. I'll work it some more over the next few days, and see my teacher next week. I think maybe the tip is too short.
Jim C.
CT, USA
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Author: mjfoboe
Date: 2015-04-16 01:20
Watch the tip - heart blend. If the tip is too thin - uneven and then you have a very thick defined heart you probably will get a whistle.
Mark
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Author: jhoyla
Date: 2015-04-16 11:24
Hmm, I remember starting out all by myself, 30+ years ago. Sounds like you are doing amzingly well for a beginner! Here (unbidden and probably unneeded) are some of my reedmaking thoughts. YMMV, and if you or your teacher don't like this advice feel free to ignore it.
Quote:
Sharpen your knife
Make no mistakes
Adjust for function (not for tone)
(c) Martin Schuring - ASU
Is your reed sealing well, all the way up to the tip? When wrapping - that should be what you focus on.
Even though the tip needs to be very thin, you must not give it ANY excuse to go off and do its own thing!
Any part of the tip that can be used as a fulcrum or that is heavier than the rest will allow parts of the tip to vibrate at their own pet frequency instead of being in step with the rest of the reed. This is your whistle.
Long, light strokes from blend to corners, straightening up just before you go off the edge, can fix an unruly tip. I call this motion "dusting the tip" and really it is exactly that. If you remove anything other than the finest dust you are pressing too hard.
The blend is the gateway to the heart of the reed. Smooth, even, well-balanced transition into the heart.
The blend is where you may need a contoured plaque, but for the tip always use a flat plaque. Don't TOUCH the tip with your knife without a flat plaque.
Take too much out of the heart and you lose everything - leave too much there and you are playing on two planks of wood placed side by side. "Between a sock and a hard place".
Balance is the key. At this point in your reedmaking development, count strokes of the knife and always perform exactly the same action on all four quadrants of the reed.
Long strokes come from the the opposing thumb, short from the knife wrist. Use the weight of the blade instead of downward pressure.
Sharpen your knife - and welcome to the long road!
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Author: rgombine
Date: 2015-04-19 01:39
If you could post a picture of the front of the reed as well as a backlit image you could probably get more feed back.
In addition to the comments already made, I would strongly suggest that you spend as much time as is necessary to get your blanks as perfect as you can. If it is overtied or doesn't seal, cut it loose and try again.
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Author: Jim22
Date: 2015-04-19 06:03
Thanks for the suggestions. If I don't get anywhere with my teacher on Tuesday I'll see if I can post some pictures. I tied 3 more blanks last night and I think that part is going fine. I'm not quite sure about slipping the leaves, but the sides look well sealed.
Jim C.
CT, USA
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Author: Jim22
Date: 2015-05-19 06:52
Some progress to report. Reed numbers 2, 3, and 4 all now make note-like sounds when played on the oboe. They don't sound great, and they are all various degrees of sharp. I will see the teacher again tomorrow. Reed number one needed a more defined and thinner tip. I should see about blending the tip and see if it would then play too.
Jim C.
CT, USA
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Author: Jim22
Date: 2015-06-04 06:44
OK, now I have a reasonably focused question. I have two reeds. The first is almost really good, but it takes just a little more breath support than I am comfortable with. The second is slightly less stable, takes a comfortable amount of breath support, but seems to take much more embouchure pressure to control (might be biting?). The first I was thinking I should slightly thin the heart, blend, and maybe tip just a little. I have no idea what to do with the second. Maybe look for balance issues. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Jim C.
CT, USA
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Author: jhoyla
Date: 2015-06-04 08:28
Can you post pictures, both back-lit and with raked lighting to show the profile?
J.
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Author: Jim22
Date: 2015-08-02 06:07
Making progress. I have a few reeds now that play and sound pretty good. The biggest problem I need to solve is that they are frequently quite sharp. The last few I tied a little longer, so I'm hoping that helps. Sort I haven't sorted out how to post pictures, but I appreciate the help you all have offered.
Last week I committed to play with an orchestra at CCSU here in CT this fall. I think have my work cut out for me. I will be a much better player if I survive!
Jim C.
CT, USA
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Author: oboi
Date: 2015-08-02 12:46
If your reed is sealing well and the opening looks good, stick with the same tie-on length.
If the reed sounds pretty good in all respects but pitch, make your final reed length a bit longer. I will do most of my scraping with a fairly long tip and then when I'm finishing and testing for pitch, shorten the reed. I will also aim for a lower pitch because once I play on the reed some and it closes up (and warms up), it will go sharp. So don't clip too much until you're sure that it's settled!
Also something that will make your reed much flatter is scraping on the heart and blend. If your reed is too open or you've not got a nice transition between the heart and tip, then scrape this area. Even taking a little off should make a marked effect on pitch. If the heart and blend and tip look really good, then be careful as taking too much heart will easily destroy your reed.
Scraping on the back will lower the pitch slightly.
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Author: Jim22
Date: 2015-08-11 05:00
Well, tying extra long didn't seem to help. I pretty much needed to trim back to a reasonable length tip anyway. I will go back to the longer side of the range my teacher gave me.
One thing I am struggling with is where to scrape initially to get a reed to start crowing and peeping. Frequently I get the tip looking OK, the tip defined, and start scraping blend and heart, but get no sound.
Should the heart be scraped flat across between rails and spine, or keep a rounded contour?
Jim C.
CT, USA
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Author: oboi
Date: 2015-08-11 09:47
That's a bit odd. You should usually get MORE response when you scrape the heart and make the blend. Which maybe means the tip you that you initially get isn't quite the tip you should be getting. Is your reed very closed after scraping the heart and blend? If you've barely touched the heart and tip and the opening is already "perfect", it's going to close up too much.
Everyone has their own method. This is usually mine:
1) Scrape the corners of the tip, diagonal and also straight, to thin it out a lot. This prevents me from catching the knife when I do step 2.
2) Start scraping along the whole length of the reed in (the amount of swipes depends on how much cane you take off each swipe... I do about 10 each quadrant). This creates my windows (and the shape of the bottom half of the windows). Avoid the rails.
3) Mark off where my tip begins and where the windows should end.
4a/b) I vary on the order of this.
a) Scrape the tip with diagonal angle. Roughly define the tip starting at the pencil mark and scrape enough so that the tip can be opened without cracking the reed. Thin down the top of the tip a lot.
b) Scrape on the upper half of the reed, knife straight to remove cane from the future heart/blend.
5) Cut the tip to reasonable length (2 mm or so of desired final length). Insert plaque.
6a/b)
a) Define the windows more, scraping up to the pencil mark noted earlier. Upper part of windows now defined.
b) Define more of tip, making sure that the tip starts where I marked. Get it to near the final thickness.
7) Scrape in the blend and thin the sides of the heart, making sure there are no bumps in the blend. Generally a lot of the rail comes off.
8) It is only at this point do I usually bother to crow the reed.
9) Now this is the point where I do all my tweaking. This can involve scraping on any part of the reed for major/minor adjustments.
The tough part is learning how to get to step (9). It is way too easy to do final tweaking before the reed is ready to receive final tweaking. You can make your tip perfect but if the rest of the reed hasn't been scraped enough, it will be all for nought.
I generally keep a straight knife if doing the blend itself. I continually define the start of my tip, though, which I suppose is also blend work, with the knife at an angle ^. I even angle the knife as a V if needed to get rid of bumps.
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Author: rgombine
Date: 2015-08-11 10:28
I suspect the tip is too thick. Before even scraping the back or the heart Try thinning the tip until You get a good rattle -- just a w shape in the tip at this point is fine. Then you can scrape cane off back and heart and clip the tip to something around a c.
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Author: Jim22
Date: 2015-08-27 06:52
Making progress I guess. Most of my reeds play now, but almost all are too closed. Its making articulated notes in the low octave rather difficult. My teacher thinks I am taking too much off the heart and back. I'll try the suggestions above. I've got myself into a local orchestra and I could use a few reeds that cooperate a bit better!
Jim C.
CT, USA
Post Edited (2015-08-27 06:56)
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