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Re: Soaking Reeds

Author: GMac
Date: 2005-06-17 20:57

I would agree, I think that the cane simply loses its strength. If you think about how fast and how minutely reeds vibrate, it's a wonder that they last as long as they do. They're put under one heck of a lot of pressure...

If I may offer my two cents on soaking, I used to have a strict 3-5 minutes in hot water for my reeds. I have found that recently if the water is cold-lukewarm and I'm using a narrow-diameter (hence bigger openings) cane, the reeds are much more stable, i.e. you don't have to play on them for a long time before they stabilize for playing purposes (as well, you don't have to as exact with timing. It's a lot harder to oversoak a reed in cooler water). If you soak the reed for a really long time or in really hot water, this will only temporarily open the reed up a lot. It will eventually settle down to the size that it wants to, and I doubt that you would want to have the size of your opening changing during a concert! That could result in some really 'insteresting' intonation issues :P.

Graham

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Soaking Reeds new

kelloboe

2005-03-10 18:42