Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2009-02-24 14:15
I have about a zillion yellow plastic boxes of New Old Stock (NOS) Olivieri reeds (mostly for Bb clarinet) -- I like them and use them regularly. Given what GBK wrote above (all quite true), there are many which I simply can't get to work, but most of them are usable. Generally they're cut with a short, thin tip area and a nice thick heart which unfortunately extends a bit too high up towards the tip, so my solution is to scrape the reeds in an inverted "U" shape (per Kal Opperman's classic book) to make the overall tip region a bit longer. This makes the reeds less shrill and "brittle" sounding and can reduce their tendency to squeak if done right.
As long as you are adept at adjusting reeds with the knife, the old Olivieris can be a very good starting point, and of course are dirt-cheap when procured from sources on That Infernal Internet Auction Site Whose Name Shall Not Be Mentioned (TIIASWNSNBM).
I got a chuckle from GBK's observation about the tempered vs. untempered varieties -- I played on these reeds a lot back in the 70s and never could tell the difference either! I would just buy whichever was available.
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