Author: cjwright
Date: 2009-09-23 04:50
This answer probably doesn't help you get out of the reed slump, but some things that might attribute to your slump:
1. The cane that you use now might respond differently to the blade than your previous cane. For example, if it's softer, it might require more "pushing down", which would compress the fibers and change the way it gouges. Or, perhaps before you got your machine serviced, the blade was dull and you WERE pressing down, and compressing the fibers, or even "tearing" the fibers off with the gouge rather than cutting the fibers, all which can effect the vibrations.
2. On single radius gouging machines, the sides are the fastest to dull, so your gouge might have been giving you thicker sides. Now that you have the blade sharp, the sides might be gouging thinner, so regarding your question if the blade curve has changed, perhaps it has!
3. Did Mr. Ross change the size of the bed or the blade so that it was more suitable for cane a different radius? (i.e. change the bed from a 10.5 to an 11.0 mm bed, or the blade for a 10.25 rather than a 10.75 or something?)
Your symptoms of saggy upper register could be from a combination of two things:
1. Your gouge is too thick on the sides, giving you less vibrations down the middle, so you're scraping too much off the heart and down the center and losing stability, or...
2. Your gouge is too thin on the sides, giving you not enough support along the rails and so despite how thick you leave them, you won't get enough "meat" in the sound nor in the stability, and you'll have to weaken the skeletal structure somewhere.
The other hint as to what the problem might be is you state the opening is too big. It sounds like a critical symptom of #1, the sides being too open.
If you'd like further help, send me an email and I'll be happy to take a look at some of your reeds if you would like to send them to me to try.
Cooper
http://cooperwrightreeds.com/
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