Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2007-05-12 16:27
Hi Dutchy --
I hope one of the guys who knows more about reeds than I do will chime in here, but I've had the sort of experience you mention with certain reeds.
I'm not sure there is anything that can be done, other than not ordering from this person again, or trying to reason with her (her? him?) and have her fix it for you.
But. I know you want to try. And so would I. So, here's what I'd try.
The reed may not be sealing well at the tip -- all that stuff about proper overlap that the reedmakers have been discussing here. Can you see how the blades are slipped against each other? Does one overlap the other one to any great extent? Are the sides of the upper half of the reed touching each other, or standing apart? If either of these is true, I would first get the reed very well-soaked -- maybe even soak it in warmish water. That might help, in and of itself. But you also might have to try to decrease the overlap, by gently pushing the blades more into alignment. Some folks say that once a reed is tied, you can't really fix the alignment of the blades, but in my experience, you can sometimes skootch them over a little, to the point where the reed will work.
If that doesn't help, or doesn't pertain, the next thing I would consider is that perhaps the tip is too thin (this does happen). I have had remarkably good results from just taking a little clip off the tip of a reed that is too thin. I think Craig M. suggests this, too. By "little", I mean an eyelash-width. You can always take off another eyelash or two if needed, but you can't put it back on. I use a single-edged razor blade for this.
If you clip back the tip very much, you might have to rescrape it a little on the "ears" (top left and right edges), or just run it lightly (from the top of the heart to the tip) over a fine emery board or very fine wet & dry sandpaper a few times.
Hope something works. I've had reeds with the condition you describe that unfortunately never did work.
Susan
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