Author: Dutchy
Date: 2006-02-16 15:12
<<< my LaVoz reed >>>
Oh for heaven's sakes. [HUGE rolleyes] Honey, you're using what are IMHO the WORST mass-produced reeds I've ever personally encountered. They're absolutely atrocious.
Do yourself a favor and move up to at least Fox factory-made reeds. At Giardinelli's they're the exact same price as the Lavoz, $6.99, and are tons better, considering that they're factory reeds.
Get a couple of Fox Medium-Soft, as they don't offer a Soft. And they may sound flat at first, but that's your embouchure: don't rush in there and clip the tip like the reed-adjusting manuals tell you to do--give them a week of playing before you decide they're flat.
Fox reeds.
http://www.giardinelli.com/product/Woodwinds/Accessories?sku=462726
I have been ordering online from Giardinelli's for nearly a year now, and it's super easy with a credit card, I've had no problems whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I just ordered some Gower reeds from them Sunday night, and they arrived Wednesday afternoon.
Giardinelli's themselves used to offer decent mass-produced student reeds, but I see that they've dropped them from their online catalog. Probably not enough demand.
If your parents don't feel comfortable ordering online with a credit card, you can quite easily request Giardinelli's to send you a catalog, and order your reeds with snail mail and a check.
Catalog request.
http://www.giardinelli.com/srs7/g=home/cr/catalog/
Whatever you do, don't order your Fox reeds from the Friendly Neighborhood Band Instrument Store (even though your parents may say, "Well, but it's so convenient, Mr. So-And-So says he can have them here by Wednesday"), because they will charge you a humongous markup, and they'll end up costing $12 instead of $7.
And you really ought to order several at a time, because that way you eventually end up with a stock of reeds in reserve, for when you bash your "good" reed against your teeth and break off the tip. None of us here have only "the" reed or "a" reed; we all have huge collections of reeds. Which is normal. So you need to start working on accumulating your own huge collection of reeds, and if your folks have a problem with that, just send them to me and I'll explain it. You're not playing a cheap instrument; oboe reeds are just darn expensive compared to clarinet reeds.
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