 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: claire70
Date: 2009-03-05 19:48
I've only recently started making my own reeds, so still feel like a newbie at it. Some of them come out okay, but a good portion of them (maybe a third) have some kind of 'weirdness' around the C-an-octave-above-middle-C area. The note is reluctant to come out, and is stuffy and flat when it does. It is particularly noticeable on C, but is also there a bit on B and C-sharp too.
I don't think it's my oboe, as it only happens on certain reeds! Any ideas what is causing this?
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2009-03-05 21:41
general principle ... when any note is reluctant to come out this commonly means the reed's not vibrating freely enough, that is, reed's too resistant for you
but first, make sure you're blow-testing your reed between scrapes outside of the oboe with a bit less oomph than you usually use to play the instrument
if you crow the reed too vigorously between scrapes outside of oboe you can end up with a reed that's too stuffy in the instrument, most instruments usually add some extra resistance, so i find it works better for me to crow the reed mp - mf rather than f - ff outside of oboe and that encourages me to take enough wood off so the reed will vibrate freely at normal playing pressure in oboe
if that isn't an issue with you, then most likely it's too much wood still left in the wrong places -- do the usual check-list of zones
wet your reed, hold up to strong back-light and check relative translucency and opacity of the entire tip -- especially the sides & lower corners of the apex -- make sure all quadrants are similar translucency, ease out excess opaqueness (woodiness) in the tip section so it all looks similar -- remember to use very sharp knife with lightest hand for fine scraping adjustments
how wide is the tapered blend area? not there? (less than 1mm = sharp drop off from heart to tip), narrow (1mm), moderate (2-2.5mm), wide (3mm), very wide (3.5mm) and does the blend grade evenly with similar opacities next to the tip and next to the heart?
If not, adjust that (wider blend is less resistant than narrow blend)
try these adjustments first
after that's all fixed should have some improvement, but if not enough check the heart's resistance next
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Author: mschmidt
Date: 2009-03-05 23:43
It sounds to me like a tip that is both too long and too thick--a pretty common problem for people new to making reeds. And even some of us who have been at it for years!
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
Post Edited (2009-03-05 23:44)
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Author: johnt
Date: 2009-03-06 13:31
Clare,
There is a general tendency in beginning reedmakers to take off too much of the tip & too much in the back. I know this from experience as I was one once. The key to getting a good crow is the effort put into building the half moon or volcano if you will, which is often called the blend (John Mack called it the "holler"), or the area between the back of the tip & the front of the heart or plateau. Measure up from the bottom of the staple 66. Put a pencil dot at this point on each side of the reed. Connect the dots. Invest in the Incra bend rule graduated in mm. via the Woodpeck website. You'll never go back to anything else. It also allows you to check the top of the thread wind to make sure it doesn't exceed 47 mm. But I digress. After scraping off a "U" with the base of the U defined by the 66 line, place the knife blade at the dot & with successive short strokes, move the knife towards the tip, ensuring that each stroke is made a little closer to the centerline of the reed (spine) The wrist should be moving up a tad with each stroke of the knife so that when you get to the tip the knife is perpendicular to the spine. Repeat this process a dozen or so times, being careful not to put notches in your reed tip side edge. Apply this method to the other three quadrants of the tip. This will ensure that you leave enough wood in this critical area of the reed. Also be careful not to scrape into the opposite side of the reed. Stay within the quadrant & don't cross the spine. When you are finished with this part of the reed, you should see the dark going up from the apex of the half moon/volcano to the tip of the reed (backlighted). You want that dark. There, I think I've let another cat out of the bag or opened another can of worms. This is some of the stuff the reed books don't tell you.
Best,
john
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2009-03-06 18:43
johnt, that's fantastic help on the blend, it certainly helped me look at my blends again with a more critical eye :-)
although, and here are some worms to look at -- for a beginner to moderate beginner, the dark spine right down into the tip is probably too stiff (resistant) and tiring to blow over time, i find about 2.5-3mm evenly thinned tip edge is easier to play for longer periods, and a graded blend area (the half moon) approx 3mm broad (down the midline) is comfortable resistance with adequate flexibility -- trade-off is less robust reed tone, true
claire70 might perhaps need a slightly softer reed than this at her stage of the game (?), if so it would be more important for her reeds that the tip sides vibrate freely for a generous 5mm (not nudging closer to 4mm which is stiffer and 3mm which is strong stuff, although these variable measurements apply more to hardening up U-scrape than American scrape)
this means on a 70mm reed, the tip sides are thinned down to 65mm -- remember though that the cane thickness on the sides is already gouged thinner than the middle, so don't thin sides too much, shouldn't be doing feathered edges there
this also means that johnt's 66mm dot in mid line would represent the *base* of the half moon blend and tapering is done forwards to the tip from there as already described, and the 'horns' of the half moon taper out at 65mm on the sides
claire70 might find it helpful to draw cross-bucks from sides 65 to 72mm corners after clipping off the fold, to visibly define a triangular apex area which is where the half moon blend would grade out into the tip
to make the 'playing edge' of the tip longer (down the midline) just measure the cross-bucks 65mm to 70mm instead, this lowers the peak of the apex (and the resulting blend will be narrower and more resistant when midline dot for base of blend is at 66mm)
to soften the blend's resistance a bit more, if she needs it, she could broaden the graded blend (half moon) band to 3mm+ rather than 3mm- by placing the mid-line dot at 65mm instead
the spine (dark) into the tip definitely gives more body to the reed's tone, when it's playable, but that depends on embouchure grown strong enough not to leak when blowing the air pressure needed to vibrate such a reed --it's all a matter of growth, progress and readiness, isn't it?
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Author: claire70
Date: 2009-03-07 07:41
Thanks for all the hints. Sorry to throw a spanner in the works though - I'm playing on a European / German style scrape, not an American one. That probably means all those measurements are completely different?....
But I will try to assimilate the general points, and will keep experimenting!
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2009-03-07 22:05
OK claire70, are you using long or short scrape Euro-German at the moment?
long scrape has bark removed closer to thread
short scrape has full bark left on at midway to thread
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2009-03-14 03:42
... and how's it going now, did you solve your original question?
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