Author: JRJINSA
Date: 2009-11-05 21:27
Hi all:
During my last oboe lesson, I took some of my troubled homemade reeds and had my teacher look at them to see what needed to be done to make them work better. They were spot on pitch, crowed three Cs perfectly, and could be played with a relaxed embouchure. The problem? They were loud!!! Not the sound I wanted.
On all three of them, he said, "The cane is too hard. Nothing can be done, these are just noise makers." So, what he taught me in the last lesson was how to sort out the "too hard", the "too soft" and the "ideal" after the cane splitting process. I'm still trying to get the hang of sorting these out by literally flexing them with both hands.
Anyway, my question to you gurus is this:
Is there something you guys do when you find a reed is too hard or too soft in the "finishing" stage? Are they salvagable to you or do you scrap them way before that point? I presume with time I'll be able to determine cane hardness/softness during the first few scrapes on those I could not catch during the splitting process, thus saving me time and frustration.
Just interested in what you guys do in these instances.
Thanks,
Jay
PS - I've seen cane hardness testers and would like to avoid buying one of these expensive contraptions, if possible. 
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