Author: vboboe
Date: 2007-11-21 00:58
... i'm wondering if "a bit flat" was an understatement, especially since you also said raucus, blew too easily, and you get C with a very rounded embouchure, perhaps that means you're working hard to keep the blades open and bring the pitch up to C? = too much wood off
Sometimes any given piece of cane has to be tied on shorter than usual to keep the blades open after scraping (geez, you'd think the cane would give you fair warning before tying on?!) and, following hautbois' suggestion, you could reshape the tube around the mandrel to widen the throat of the tube itself, but my hunch is on "a bit flat" = too much wood off
tone-test the heart itself, with a neutral embouchure not attempting to adjust anything and blow a long steady tone, what does it pitch at?
A-440? As low as that? (joke, get it?) Heart-wood is where you want to centre C tone, so only take wood off the heart just enough to bring it down to C, no more ... if the heart's flat, sigh ... basket case
As for the squeaky crow, you might be in luck, perhaps the windows under the catch just need another tiny shaving off to loosen up the crow, or perhaps the back could be more neatly groomed to slightly widen the strips between rails & spine ro improve responsiveness there
To find out if that might work for you, roll over into the windows right under the catch and do a steady long tone-test there with 'upper register' embouchure. If it's really tight and resistant but gives you a high-pitched 'squeak', lucky you, just ease out a bit more wood to free it up to give you a high-pitched sweet tone, then try crow test at the thread again
On the other hand, with a squeak like that, after checking for too much independent tip vibration (cutting off tiniest triangles at corners of tip's edge might help in that case) also suspect a crack or split. This could be from tying on, or it could be too much pressure from a slightly dull knife resulting in a reed that's been 'flattened' ...
Isn't making reeds more of a rush than dungeons & dragons? Each time is s-o-o-o nervily different !
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