 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: orchestr
Date: 2012-01-16 20:02
I don't want to start too much of a debate, since how we handle reeds is very individual, but lately I have heard from three or four different professional clarinetists that they do not soak the heel/butt end of the reed, ever. I tried this (soaked only the vamp for about 10 seconds), and my reeds were buzzy and sounded like, well, unsoaked reeds. I'd plop the butt end of the reed in water for a few seconds, and magically, the reed played amazing, so I dismissed it right away.
Do any of you follow this procedure, and have any comments? It makes sense to me that, because of the capillary action of reed fibers, even if you only soak half of the reed, the other half will pull moisture from that half, anyway. I also believe that the whole reed vibrates, not just the vamp (otherwise the ligature wouldn't make such a difference!). I usually only soak my reeds for a few seconds, seldom longer than about 15, just long enough to make it playable. Maybe if I'm only soaking half of the reed, I need to soak it twice as long?
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Author: TJTG
Date: 2012-01-16 20:07
Ridenour defends not soaking the butt of the reed simply because as you play it dries, warps, and no longer seals on the lower half of the mouthpiece.
I think there is some merit to that if you're going to play for a long time and it has a chance of drying out.
Personally I've tried both and don't notice too much of a difference. I think I soak the whole reed because it's been bashed into my brain that if I don't I'm doing something wrong.
The way I do soak my reed is I dip it in water, each end, never letting it sit in water. Then I wipe it off with my fingers and set it down. There is some moisture that is absorbed as I put my clarinet together. I never let it sit in water... maybe it doesn't warp because the heal doesn't absorb much water in the first place.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-01-16 20:13
I don't soak my reeds in water but do suck them. I also lick the underside to ensure the entire length of the reed that's in contact with the table seals properly against the table which prevents squeaks.
Some people expect to lick or moisten just the vamp area of the reed to get it working (but they usually end up chirping), but it's just as important to moisten the entire underside as it is to moisten the free end.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: orbystander
Date: 2012-01-16 21:09
Speaking of the butt of the reed, the following has been useful to me in improving some of my reeds:
Somewhere on this board I saw a video demonstrating the "reed geek" tool and it emphasized smoothing the butt of the reed to achieve a good seal before other adjustments were considered. I don't own a reed geek but may try one eventually.
Meanwhile, being an owner of the Ridenour ATG system, I have used his "sanding block" tool successfully to smooth, level, or whatever you want to call it . . . the butt of the reed. Ridenour himself doesn't mention this technique as I recall; he promotes other adjustments.
The method I use is to make sure only the back of the reed butt is affected, by gently moving it in a circular motion "cross grain" (that means sanding it sideways across the back of the reed instead of lengthwise) over the finer grit of sandpaper on the block. The block itself provides the necessary leveling when used judiciously. After only a few strokes I play test it. If there is no improvement, I may repeat the process until I'm convinced no (further) improvement is likely.
-orbystander
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2012-01-16 21:44
I did not soak it, but I smoothed the supposedly flat reed surface with 600 grade sandpaper resting on a thick plate glass table with 3x magnification and refractive light. I did this several times during the life of the reed.
richard smith
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2012-01-16 22:08
I don't personally ever soak the heel end.
In my experience soaking the vamp for only 10 seconds is far too short a time.
When breaking in new reeds I will soak the vamp for at least 2 minutes in each of first 2-3 days.
As a reed reaches playing condition it becomes about 30-40 secs although in first weeks I find many reeds then need to be re-soaked after first few minutes of playing until they stabilise.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-01-16 23:42
Dunk heel for a few seconds, let the vamp sit for a few minutes and then play. The procedure for breaking in is similar but shorter....... for me.
..................Paul Aviles
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Author: Wes
Date: 2012-01-17 08:09
Soaking the butt of the reed tends to stiffen and restrict the vibration of the whole reed while wetting onlly the vamp and the flat underside allows the reed to vibrate while on the mouthpiece lay, I believe.
When water gets in the tubes in the butt, the fibers soak it up and become slightly larger and stiffer, in my humble opinion. I prefer to keep the butt interior as dry as possible. This is even more important with oboe reeds.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2012-01-17 13:42
I've generally found that I perform much more comfortably with a dry butt.:-)
Tony F.
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Author: orchestr
Date: 2012-01-17 23:35
Interesting responses! I have a box of reeds that I'm breaking in, and I just tried the following with each reed: playing completely dry, soaking only the vamp, soaking only the vamp but moistening the table of the butt, and soaking the whole reed. I found that dry was terrible (of course): hard, stuffy, buzzy, brittle. Soaking the vamp sounded, not surprisingly, half-way between dry and wet, more vibrancy, but still a bit stuffy and buzzy. Then I wet the but end of the reed for just a moment with saliva, and it really opened up the sound! In fact, when I fully-wet the butt end of the reed, I felt it lost some of its vibrancy. Interesting.
I try to not let the tips of my reeds get "clear". I find with new reeds, that happens in literally about 10-20 seconds if I'm soaking in water. As the reed fibers close up (whether I close them up, or they close up on their own), I find that I need to soak the reed slightly longer to make it playable, but again, not long enough for the water to fully penetrate the reed and make the tip clear. Even still, I find that about 20-30 seconds is the MOST I ever have to soak my reeds to make them playable. However, I come from a school of thought that water is the enemy, causing reeds to warp and break-down quicker.
Well, to each his own. A friend of mine had a student who would take a reed out of the box, snap the vamp in half, then straighten it out again and use it. She swore they played better that way. I knew a saxophone player who would take the dirt from his windowsill and rub it into the vamp of his reeds because he swore it improved his jazz tone.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2012-01-18 03:22
I go into detail on my reed pages on my website as to why I never wet the bark half and only wet the vamp for a few sections so I'm not going to explain it all here. If you're interested I suggest you read it. My reeds never buzz like you say yours do, probably because of the way I prepare them verses the way you do. Check it out if your interested. ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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