Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2007-07-29 14:49
Ah, more pieces of the puzzle. I've been playing purple-box early-70's Vandoren 5's, and was surprised when people suggested they were too stiff. I even have to clip some over-responsive specimens. It's good to learn that those older reeds correspond to 3.5s or 4s in the current Vandoren line. (BTW, thanks to everyone in this forum for a continuous stream of valuable information.)
So far, each old purple box seems to supply a couple of reeds that play easily and beautifully with no modification, and a handful that play well enough for practice with little or no modification. There's usually also several dogs that are very unresponsive or crazed. Since I'm still unknowlegeable on modifying reeds, I practice even on the dogs and work on making them sound the best I can, in hopes that they will become more playable with time, which does work on some.
In the old days, if a reed really pissed me off, I'd burn it with a blowtorch or run over it with a car or boil it in oil or something, then enshrine it in a rogue's gallery I kept (now lost.) Apparently I've aged beyond that silliness, though I'm still occasionally tempted.
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