Author: RobinDesHautbois
Date: 2010-05-30 13:31
Great, we now hit hit the rough stuff! This is the "fun" part.... if you're an engineer!
Making reeds is easy. And you're right, reeds should be made to suit your body and playing styles, not the converse. Most of my reeds look different, but they all allow me to play my way.
Once you've established that you are a good player, if you find reed making difficult (I was there a long time too), then there are three things you must do:
1. control the cane : get a good shaper (possibly a gouger)
2. try your own good reeds on different instruments
3. go on a holiday!
=> I'll explain in reverse order.
Holiday: sorry if this sounds presumptuous, but your last note rang a familiar bell... When reaching the age of 35-ish (some time ago!) one realizes just how strongly mental/emontional state has run life up to then. You MUST keep calm, confident, happy and a team-player with everyone else around you. This doesn't happen when nerves are running your life. The best thing that ever happened to me was "quitting music" and joining the Canadian Army Reserves as a musician. I went back to music right away and the military taught me the true meaning of team-work and what my limits really were. Be careful of organizations that claim to "help you reach your potential" and so on: I used to belong to many, the most reputable, and they all have ulterior motives. The simplest ways are still the best: sports, camping, church/synagogue/mosque, hobbies and friends outside your house/appartment.
Instrument: I started getting a reputation for really good reeds when I could be considered an advanced student: excellent control of my playing. Lots of discipline and self-correction, but no nonsense. The Loree I played was excellent, but not for me (now having it revoiced): it didn't take my wind well enough and its "soggy notes" troubled both my sound and my tuning. Remember that the brand does not make the instrument. If I were to buy an instrument now, it would probably be a used Laubin or a Rigoutat, not a new Loree.
Cane: the shape is crucial to reed performance and it has huge implications on body types. Same with staples: what you wrote about cutting staples to suit your needs makes good sense to me. I use (big) Chiarugi #3 or Pisoni (less expensive) that I shorten to match. Roseau Chantant and RDG, perhaps other places, can send you bundles of cane shaped with different shapers. This allows you to test a variety and then buy the shaper that suits you best. Some of my colleagues (with less square bodies) use Loree staples (narrow) and RDG -1 but get the same tone and dynamic range. Some do best with "windows", I can't stand them.
Your excellent observation about overlapping deals with shaping consistency: that's why pros do more themselves. Even the best stores get too busy and quality lags. BUT, even our own shaped cane, when folding, is not automatically positioned correctly for parallelism. To prevent slipping, you need to observe the cane and re-angle it (the way you hold it on the staple) when tying. Use a very bright lamp and be sure the sides of the both blades on both sides of the reed look the same just before you turn the thread downward. Don't finish the tie untill the seal is a "pretty" as you can get it. It can take dozens of tries to get it right.
I've found that gouge really wrecks reeds, so best get cane that's gouged by the store (RDG, webreeds.com, oboecane.com, etc.), not the manufacturer. When still a student, I was fortunate enough to buy a used gouging machine for $100, but it was in a horrible state. Ceramic sharpening stones and good radius gages alowed me to taylor the inside of the cane to my own liking (thinner sides).
Best of luck and keep smiling!
Robin Tropper
M.A.Sc., B.Mus., B.Ed.
http://RobinDesHautbois.blogspot.ca/music
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