 The Oboe BBoard
|
Author: oboi
Date: 2015-05-01 12:42
I'm tinkering with my baroque reeds again. I have concluded my issue is STEP ONE.... tying on the reed. I have a baroque tip and due to my complete inability to shape by hand, I'm sticking to it. I'm experimenting with gouge and diameter of cane and it's not making much difference. I have been tying onto EH staples but as you can imagine, a staple that works for EH diameter cane won't really work with baroque cane (which is 2-3 mm larger in diameter). My main issue is that my blank is way too flared and/or has a ghastly large opening. I have to scrape the reed down to nothing most of the time and use wire (and flatten extremely), which is always making me extremely flat. The reed often is still too open to play or with so much scraping, just collapses.
I am tying as long as possible. What I would like to try next is to mimic some baroque staples by shortening the EH staple. I'm going to use a file. This will give me a larger tip opening. Am I correct that it will make the reed more closed?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GoldenBoy
Date: 2015-05-05 06:56
I have a couple of tips that you may or may not find helpful. I've done a lot of research into the various solutions for baroque oboe reeds lately and have dealt with a lot of the same issues you're talking about. I'll just make a list as to make things easier:
-Staple choice: There should be no problem with a standard e.h. tube. Some players even use oboe d'amore tubes, so it's unlikely that your staples' openings are too small to work. I have settled on chiarugi #3 e.h. tubes for two-piece staple reeds, which are larger overall and will sit lower down on your under-staple, rending the setup shorter overall, meaning a reed that is higher in pitch. The main thing that a larger staple opening will do is raise the pitch of the second octave (widening the octave relationships.) It doesn't seem to change how open the reed is significantly, which brings me to the next point.....
-Staple opening "oval-ness." Try making your tube opening more round (less oval) with a pair of pliers. This will most definitely give you a more closed reed. (You can even do this on a finished reed to test it out. Just don't go so far that you flatten the staple the other way!)
-The shape: In my experience, I can't get a reed to work at all if it is wider than about 9.3mm (MAYBe i can get away with 9.5 if the reed is very narrow at the thread), and this is coming from a person that loves wide modern oboe reeds. I simply find that i can't jump up the octave reliably (on my oboes) if it's wider than that, and that the reed just feels unruly and too open. If your shaper is wider than that, simply sand the sides after tying until it's closer to that measurement. 220 or 320 grit wet/dry silicon carbide paper is ideal, though any fine grade paper will work. This requires much less skill than hand shaping with a knife.
-The gouge: A taper gouge would work towards making a more manageable reed in your situation. Try sanding (or scraping) down the gouge towards the tip before shaping by about .1mm, especially on the sides of the tip. Many of the "baroque oboe experts" agree that Taper gouges were the norm in the 18th century. Definitely worth a shot.
Hope some of this helps!
Post Edited (2015-05-06 01:08)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: oboi
Date: 2015-05-07 04:05
Thanks for your detailed advice! I've crimped one EH staple to be basically circular. Haven't scraped it down to playable state yet but at least it doesn't look insanely open. Yes, I've now learned of more people who use Chiarugi #3, so will test that out.
Since I last wrote that, I found out my oboe overall is insanely flat. Which sorts out A LOT of the issues. I was continuously getting the reeds to pitch and the setup probably can't handle it.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
