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Re: Reed Care

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-06-01 16:43

My first thought on the "chip" is that you have a reed (or reeds) that has become too brittle over the amount of time you hold on to it. Also, I'm not opposed to the plastic holders that open at the side (Vandoren) where you slide the reed in and out sideways, but the one that require sliding the reed in front ways for the full length of the reed begs for problems.

Rico has a dedicated reed case that is pretty decent but for inexpensive and effective, I like the LaVoz reed holders. They hold 4 reeds at a time and though you are sliding forward, it is a shorter distance and they will actually help keep the tips flatter (by means of the simple cantilever flap).

I would also highly recommend trying to start a new set of reeds sooner. After about two months of constant use, reeds will begin to exhibit a clearly more audible degradation of sound - harsher, less resonant, more "squeally."

Couple of other things:

Let them dry to the touch (15-20 minutes) and visual inspection before putting them in the LaVoz (or other such holder).

Break-in in reeds by playing on a brand new one only five minutes a day (or less than five minutes) for the first 4-5 days. Once through that time period of "re-hydrattion" you should be ok to play for as long as you like.

Finally, you don't need anything fancy for humidity. I take one of those small, fold-over plastic sandwich bags, blow a puff of air in there and put my reed holders in the bag, folding over once. If you do that every time you take out a reed and every time you put it back (each day that is), you should have enough humidity.

.................Paul Aviles

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