Author: Oboe Craig
Date: 2011-01-01 23:34
Not sure why, but every now and then I get motivated to make longer than usual reeds. I do this annually for some reason.
For me, that means going from finished 68.0 - 69.0 mm 'short' reeds on a 46 mm staple to 71.5 to 72 mm reeds on a 46 mm staple.
Just had a run of reeds going over 70 mm and they all speak well, and have a lively big sound when wanted, but also play well at pp. They even articulate well on low b, c, c#... even at soft levels of volume.
What I puzzle about is why reeds in between those extremes always seem lame.
I suspect it relates to a range of reed length that falls into an anti-node vibration where some natural dampening occurs.
On the longer reeds, more un-scraped cane remains above the staple and they just seem to have an added dimension of sound quality. Depth, projection, etc.
And they tend to have longer useful lives as reeds.
I am trying to correlate the difference to tube diameter, or stiffness of cane, but mostly just interested in the sound characteristics at this point.
American long scrape, .6 mm center gouge, Brannon X-Narrow shape.
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
