 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-10-03 07:40
I was recently given samples of a fairly new brand of reed from Germany. The manufacturer is AW Reeds and their web site is at <www.aw-reeds.com>. They have just released samples of their model 301 French style clarinet reeds. They also make German and Austrian cut and a full range of reeds for harmony clarinets. They also produce a limited range of saxophone reeds, at this stage only soprano and alto.
I was provided at this stage only with the model 301 French style reeds in strengths 2, 2.5 and 3. The sax reeds are still coming as are the German cut. Although French style reeds this only refers to the size as they are not file cut. The tip size roughly corresponds to the Vandoren and they have a taper towards the butt similar but not as pronounced as Zonda. The blanks are slightly thicker than the blue box but not as thick as a V12 or Grand Concert Thick Blank. The reeds have a curious vamp. The lower end of the vamp towards the bark has an M shaped scrape to borrowing from oboe/ cor-anglais reed techniques. They are in boxes of 10, alto sax will be in 5's.
I was give a box of each strength and have tried them across a number of mouthpieces. The strengths play fairly true to blue box Vandoren as opposed to the softer V12 numbers. I tried the number 2 on a Pomarico diamond and found it a little hard for my liking but nevertheless I was able to play the full range, the 2.5 and 3 I tried on a C85 120 Selmer my normal mouthpiece and a Yamaha Custom 6CM for comparison. My personal preference is for the 3. The reeds have a fairly bright sound with a lot of projection as would be expected with a thickish blank, plenty of wood in the sound at low dynamics. Good dynamic range as well as pitch range, easily to A and Bb holding good intonation. They are very responsive to tongueing with less lag than the Vandoren. My only criticism at this stage is that they are bright, very bright. Consistency is good across the boxes and the reeds are quite symmetrical, I have not adjusted any of the samples. I am going to use, or at least try, these reeds on 3 4 hour gigs over the next 3 days to get an idea of the durability and I will report back. The clarinet reeds are worth trying, I am generally septical of new reed brands, I am waiting on the saxophone samples to try. They don't have a local distributor, Australia, as yet and I am not sure about the USA. They also make German style mouthpieces.
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2008-06-18 10:22
Hm, searched on these and didn't find much in the archive! So I thought I'd better add my vote to this thread.
I've just started a box of French Cut 302's and have to say I'm very pleased with them - to the extent that they've almost kicked everything else out of my case. [No affiliations here!]
They play quite bright and quite hard (at least as hard as VanD Blue box). Sound is quite 'clean' to my ear - I feel I've been struggling to maintain this recently. There is some strength variation out of the box but they seem to settle in fairly quickly and have lasted OK so far. (Fwiw, I'm working with VanD 11.6 mpc right now - another unusual choice?)
Anyone else use these, or similar? In general, is there anything in particular to expect from the German reed manufacturers, do you think?
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2008-06-18 12:36
Aw Reeds are the best I have ever tried... ever. AW has been my brand for the past year after trying so much else with limited satisfaction. The one thing about them is that they are more expensive than many other brands, but that doesn't matter as they last much longer. The cane is better.
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Author: vjoet
Date: 2008-06-18 15:23
Are there any US distributors of the AW Reeds?
Vann Joe
(amateur)
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Author: vjoet
Date: 2008-06-19 16:02
Ed, thanks for the info. Yesterday I wrote to AW Reeds in Germany and just got their reply. Here's the full contact info:
H. Karlsson Woodwinds
hkarlssonww@gmail.com
469-546-7097
http://www.hkarlssonwoodwinds.com
I just ordered a couple boxes to try.
Vann Joe
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