 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-04-03 02:52
10 minute test report on a box of 10 Riyin reed shaped objects, purported to be of strength 2.5...
10 minutes is about how long it took me to blow on all 10. By the 3rd or 4th I knew it was hopeless, but I stuck with it to the end. The sounds I got out of my clarinet were kind of funny, but as was once attributed to Queen Victoria (perhaps unfairly), I was not amused. 2.5? I've played Rico 1.5's as an experiment and found them usable if not ideal. A couple of these Riyins might have approached 0.5 if such a rating really exists, the rest were even softer.
Since they were all impossibly soft I was not really able to evaluate further, but I was not encouraged to work on them (by trimming and ATG sanding for instance) by their shoddy appearance or odd coloration. I could post photos, but why bother? The whole box went straight into the trash. (Return shipping to China for a refund would cost more than I paid for them. I don't understand the economics of that, but I accept the conditions.)
So what, you might ask, possessed me to purchase them? Just call it a data point. As they constantly repeat on Mythbusters, "Any result's a result." And it only cost me $3.25. Think how triumphantly I might have crowed on BBoard, "I got playable reeds for 33 cents each!". Alas, not to be.
Eventually I will get around to the $35/10 and $10/3 reed brands, after I exhaust the $6/3 and $15/10 varieties, unless one of those proves to be a super winner and sucks me in to stay. So far, I do know that Vandoren blues are better for me than V12's, 5.6's (maybe), Mitchell Lurie, Rico and Rico Reserve, and La Voz.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
Post Edited (2014-04-03 00:30)
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