 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: jim lande
Date: 2013-09-22 03:55
Why do we whittle on the vamp to adjust a reed?
tonight I found a reed that seemed much harder than the strength indicated. After sanding on the vamp for a while and not making much progress, i decided to undercut the reed instead.
I sanded the underside -- not near the tip or rails or over the table, but in the middle under the vamp. It worked wonderfully.
I know from reading other threads that some adjusting is aimed at correcting specific problems rather than simply making the reed softer. But it seems like undercutting runs less risk of altering the shape of the vamp.
Obviously a sample size of 1 does not make make a strong case.
Opinions?
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2013-09-22 15:56
Read the article Romancing the Reed in The Clarinet of about 25 years ago.
richard smith
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-09-22 16:53
Jim -
I've sanded the bottoms of my reeds forever. The stiffness of the bark causes any swelling to warp the bottom outward down the middle, which causes leakage and ruins the response.
The reed bottom also swells into the mouthpiece window, mirroring its shape. Unless you leave the reed on the mouthpiece (which Gino Cioffi did, by the way), it's almost impossible to put it on to match up the window and the swelling.
The first thing I do when a kid comes to me is take the reed off and look for the window-shaped swelling. If I see it and feel it by rubbing with my thumb (which is more than half the time), I sand it smooth, which enormously improves the playing.
Reeds also die because of sickle-shaped warping from the butt to the tip. You can revive the reed for a day or two by shaving a thick slice off the bottom of the last 3/16" of the butt. Some people use a coping saw to cut off the butt corners or shorten the butt by 3/16".
Ken Shaw
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2013-09-23 01:56
This is not an uncommon remedy for making a reed softer. It's no secrect. I have several articles of reed care and reed adjusting on my website if you're interested, including "undercutting" a reed.
Ken, Iggy Gennusa used to leave the reed on his mouthpiece too. I've done the same thing with my bass clarnet as long as I can remember but I didn't like it on my regualar clarinet. Besides, I always rotated my clarinet reeds and never had the problem you described, at least not as long as I've used humidity control, which I've been doing for at least 30-35 years.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
Post Edited (2013-09-23 02:02)
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Author: jim lande
Date: 2013-09-23 02:55
Ed -- I'm still looking through info on your website. Very useful. So far, however, I have not found anything discussing undercutting reeds (as opposed to simply making sure that the underside is flat).
After i play, I remove the reed, clean the clarinet, and then clamp the reed back on the mouthpiece, put on the mpc cover and then put everything back in the case. Perhaps the issue is clumsiness, but I am much less likely to damage a reed this way. I have nicked corners off of reeds getting them into and out of cases.
I don't rotate reeds and i don't play in a horn section, so I don't need to have consistent tone from day to day I doubt if anyone would notice. But then, I am playing all improvised music.
I use a velcro ligature which doesn't put much force on any single spot on the reed and overall exerts less tension than commercial ligatures. I don't have to loosen anything to move the reed around a bit, but I have never had problems with a reed shifting by itself. I wonder if the combination of soft ligature and storing the reed clamped on the mouthpiece table explains why I have never noticed a problem with warped reeds. (The other explanation would be that I have thrown out perfectly good reeds mistaking warp for muzzyness.)
I did just try the creating-a-vacuum with the mouthpiece test that I found on Ed's website. My sample of 1 reed seems OK. Then I sanded the bottom of the reed with 400 grit and probably softened the reed more than i wanted. Oh well, more experimenting is in order.
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