Author: vboboe
Date: 2004-11-15 05:53
Hi there Snoopy
Welcome back to obo'ing ... seems to me there's lots of folks picking up their instruments from way back when lately - music must be in the air
Here's what I've re-learned about commercial reeds (Emerald, Jones, La Voz, Rico) in the last coupla months
Just enough water is better than too much, oversoaking makes my reed apertures collapse quickly
I like to soak my reeds just long enough so they'll speak to me easily
Used reeds don't seem to need so much soaking, but new ones seem to need more coaxing with a longer soak
New commercial reeds seem bone dry, so they soak awhile (15-20 mins)
I usually test them after 5, 10, 15 mins to see when they're ready
Usually new reeds need a bit of fixing (scraping) to free them up a bit for me and then I blow them in over a few days until they're mellow, or junk (junk = commercial reeds don't always work well even after I've fixed them)
Running them under the tap seems to work OK when the reed's already blown in and playing fine, but doesn't seem to work for brand new ones
When the weather was hot and dry here, my used blown in reeds needed a good soaking in water first
Now it's rainy here I find the tap method works great since I'm doing daily practice, they don't get bone dry in between
Just another set of variables for this versatile instrument, eh?
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