Author: huboboe
Date: 2012-05-12 20:51
I agree with Robin, Shawn - that is a really good question. By his definition :-)
And the variables listed by Craig and Robin are pretty much the list I would come up with: instrument, chops & physiognomy, cane diameter, reed style, altitude, weather, and to a great degree, how a reed made from a given shape 'feels', how the resulting balance feels. Obviously, as Robin suggests, you need to play around with the scrape on any given tip to get the closest you can to your desired result (which will be different for different players...).
Although this is a long list, most of these variables will really be constants: same altitude, same instrument, same staples, same body and chops, same cane, same reed style (in the large sense, at least), and, until you change it, the same shaper. This leaves only the weather as the main variable (and how solid your chops are - keep practicing...). If you experiment during stable weather periods, you will have a good platform to base your results on.
Even so, the sum of these other variables interacts with the shape to produce the result, and though you can find a pattern that works in your universe, I think the number of universes made possible by juggling all the variables make it impossible to quantify the effect of a single change in an overall meaningful manner beyond the broad strokes you pointed out in your question. Just my not-so-humble opinion...
It's worth noting here, though, that Bert Lucarelli designed his tip with "the marriage of a Mack top with a Bloom bottom". His is a relatively narrower tip with a relatively fatter throat. I tried it for a while when I first started making it and liked the feel of it but went back to my trusty Brannen X, probably because of the 'comfy bedroom slippers' effect.
And when I first started making the RDG/Mack tips I made an exact copy of the tip that Mack asked Bob Gilbert to have made. John said, "Too narrow. Make it .001 inch wider." I did (that was the Mack+) and John said, "Still too narrow. Make it another .001 inch wider." I did (that was the Mack++) and John said, "Too wide." and finished his career on the Mack+.
I'm unable to distinguish between them - I think the error introduced in shaping is greater than that difference - but who am I to argue with John Mack?
Thanks for the compliments on the Westwind comparison chart, Shawn. You will notice that the measurements are only expressed to one decimal place. Although O measure to 4 decimal places, I only published to a single place to avoid publishing too much proprietary info, but this has the down side of labeling more than one tip with the same measurements, but in all cases, the lower on the chart the tip is, the wider it is. More differences are in the 2nd and 3rd places than in the first, another reason to argue that small changes can make large differences.
I should point out here that Westwind offers the 30 day trial period on shaper tips specifically to allow you to try different tips without having to buy everything you try...
Craig, you are absolutely right in your 'tie to close' approach. There's only one place on the taper of a given shape where there's just enough cane to wrap snugly around the tube and this will be different for different tubes, and for the same tube, different for different shapes.
You can eliminate one of those dreaded variables by making sure all your tubes are the same length and fit your mandrel the same way (preferably exactly...).
Anyway, to sum up my comments, I think Robin got it right - you've got to try different shapes on your setup to find what you need for yourself. And unfortunately for students already floundering in a sea of uncertainties, they need to be fairly proficient reed makers for this process to work for them. I've always felt it was better to get them using a middle of the road tip (my trusty X, for instance) and let them learn to control their reed making first. Otherwise they won't know whether it's the shape or the knife work making the difference...
Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com
|
|
The Oboe BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
