 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ruben
Date: 2025-11-10 13:39
I opened up an old cigar box with about 100 reeds that belonged to my old teacher and boss. They're from 1965 (written on the box); I found some real gems there..and it's not finished. The reeds that were worn out remain worn out-you can't bring something that's dead back to life. But among those that were never used, there are some fantastic ones (Vandoren, Neuranter). Are old reeds like vintage wine? (ps: some wines don't age: turn to vinegar).
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
Post Edited (2025-11-10 13:40)
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Author: Ed
Date: 2025-11-10 17:19
I recall that there were people who made their own reeds who believed in aging it for decades when possible. Years ago I found a large stash of the old purple box Vandorens from a store that was closing. I used those for years until they ran out. They were some of the best reeds I had.
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2025-11-10 18:22
I'm glad for your positive experience Ruben, but that said it's only fair that we discount whatever scientific principles may be at play here (and there may very well be some) with the reality that without having evaluated a random sample of these reeds in 1965 (assuming your subjective standard even remained the same throughout the years) that it's tricky to assign age or some time component(s) as a factor in their improvement.
Were the unused reeds ones your teacher found unsuitable at the time? If so, we'd also have to consider that even in 1965 some of the reeds he found unsuitable you might like, and vice versa. 
Post Edited (2025-11-10 19:17)
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Author: ruben
Date: 2025-11-10 21:24
SecondTry: Of course! -no scientific proof that reeds get better with age. But maybe they used better cane in those days. They certainly used better wood for making clarinets.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2025-11-10 21:30
I stopped playing in 1975 and resumed in 2007. The excellent Vandorn purple-box reeds I'd been playing were still excellent 32 years later. Not better, but just as good. I used them for years as I regained technique and improved it. I still have a couple in my "really good ones" reed case, though I gradually changed over to new reeds in recent years, as the old ones ran out.
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Author: graham
Date: 2025-11-11 00:46
Towards the end of the 90s I bought several boxes of Regal Queen reeds on which I had been playing for a number of years. These boxes contained reeds of much lower strength and tonal depth than the ones I had been using, and I decided after several boxes that I had bought a job-lot of duds or else that the manufacturer's design had changed fundamentally, so I left three of the boxes unopened and put them away.
Around 6 months ago, I took the plastic wrapper off a couple of those unopened boxes. All the reeds are considerably harder than the ones I originally opened from that bulk purchase, and probably harder than the best of the ones I had previously used in the 90s. They also play with a good sound quite unlike how the others played in the bulk purchase. The only reasonable explanation is that the intervening 25-30 years has significantly changed their playing characteristics.
This doesn't alter the fact that they were wrong to start with, of course. But it gives credibility to the idea that the cane matures, and the extent of the change did surprise me.
graham
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2025-11-12 17:34
I think reeds can improve with age, but it depends upon the conditions in which they are stored. I bought several boxes of several types of Vandoren reeds from a closing down sale. They'd been lost in a store room for decades and I bought the lot for $A30. About half were of average quality, but the harder ones (3.5+) were of better quality than I would expect from modern production.
Tony F.
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