 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ronish
Date: 2011-06-03 20:56
I hav`nt found the need for buying a $45 reed trimmer in the past but as I have now just bought a box of very soft unusable reeds I have to either to throw them away or consider trimming them.
So before I start spending are the any workable alternatives such a wedging between two coins. I`ve looked at past posts but am wondering if there has been any new trick trimmers.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2011-06-04 13:22
I didn't pay anything like $45 for my trimmer, it cost me $A22, about $US23. It's a no-name clipper, made in France and works just fine. I've used the 2 coins and a lighter method. It can sort of work, but I'd only ever do it where there was no alternative.
Tony F.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2011-06-04 15:59
I know players who use a piece of fine sandpaper or wet-or-dry to gently sand back the tip. They work from the each corner toward the center so they don't rip pieces off the edges. It gives you more control over the shape of the tip than a clipper does.
I rarely clip or otherwise shorten reeds this way. It can be helpful if only the tip was somehow cut too thin originally or has been adjusted too thin in the course of trying to balance it. But if the heart itself is too soft, even when you clip the tip (moving the whole profile up a very tiny amount), you still have a piece of cane that's the same density and, in my own opinion, still prone to most of the problems of a too soft reed.
Karl
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Author: salzo
Date: 2011-06-05 20:53
Sometimes I use a clipper, but I prefer using #400, or #320 wet dry sandpaper.
There is a tool that is sold in hobby stores, I cant remember the name of it, but it is a stick that is about 7" long, and you place a 3mm wide long strip of sandpaper around it. One side is pointed, the other rounded. I used to do it by hand, but now I use this, making it much easier for me to follow the contour of the tip without deviating on either side.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2011-06-06 00:35
Courdier is the only good quality, durable trimmer, and, as you say, they go for $49.99 at WW&BW. It's just that you need one, and all the others I've tried are garbage.
Unfortunately, their tip shape is inconsistent, so you need to go to a big store and try out half a dozen to find a good one. Tom Ridenour used to pick them out, but I don't know whether he does that any more.
On the Courdier, I push the butt of the reed far to one side and then the other and trim tiny bits to make the reed tip fit the mouthpiece tip rail. The fit is critical at the corners. If the corners of the reed end up sharp, it can make the reed whistle, so I use a Revlon Diamond Dust nail file to take that off and do the final shaping
My next step up will be the diLutis at $75 http://www.thereedmachine.net/proddetail.php?prod=reedclipper.
I've tried a straight-across toenail clipper with disastrous results and have had almost no luck with a curved fingernail clipper. I've tried Buster's burn-off method, but it left the tip ragged, made the reed taste like burnt toast and scorched the hell out of my fingertips.
Ken Shaw
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