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Re: Reed Adjustment

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-10-09 22:23

First I want to say upfront that I personally do NO work on old reeds. After the month or so life expectancy, I move on to new reeds.

When making reeds, a friend of mine would take them almost finished (that is, reeds with more material left on the vamp to be taken off later), get them all wet with saliva, slap them on glass, let them dry and warp, and then sand them flat. That process would continue over days until there was no warping. Only then was the reed treated to final shaving.

I would humbly submit an analogy when discussing USED reeds. Look at the prow of a wooden ship (or any bent strip of wood for that matter). You get it that way by getting it wet, bending it to shape (more likely in phases), clamping it down and letting it dry so that it permanently takes on that shape.

What we do when we play reeds is essentially the above described process. It would make more sense to me to try and wet the old reed, place it flat side down on glass and place something heavy upon it until it dries flat (also may take several attempts). Sanding a reed that already has the dimensions you wanted will only take the dimensions that did work (in the past) away.

Or you could just buy a new box of reeds.

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

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