Author: Carole417
Date: 2012-08-06 01:51
Hi Shawn and Everyone,
Just today I was on the Westwind website, viewing the shaper tip comparison chart that you mentioned. I also looked at the similar chart that Ann Hodge has on her site. All of the tip measurements matched up on both sites except for the Adam tips. Every one was different! So I went to the Adam website, where only the tip measurement is listed, but the tip measurements all matched up with Ann Hodge's chart. Is Westwind off on all the Adam tips? Or am I crazy or doing something wrong!
Has anyone else found this discrepancy? Today it really impeded my search for a new shaper tip. I'm trying to find a tip that is narrow in the throat and flares more at the tip than my Pfeiffer/ Mack.
In case anyone is interested, here are the three sites I mentioned:
http://www.shapertips.com/
http://www.westwinddoublereed.com/compareoboeshapertips-27.html
http://www.hodgeproductsinc.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=51_107_234
I do have one thing to contribute to the discussion about 'what happens if.." My students sometimes bring in processed cane - from various dealers - that flares out at the tip but is very narrow at the throat. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, I've never been able to find out what tip the cane is shaped on. But I have had surprisingly good success making reeds from this 'student' cane. In discussing this with a colleague, we theorized that this 'V' shaped tip - as opposed to a more parallel tip - might be a key to the low-note-response versus high- note- stability issue. Hence my search today brought me to your discussion!
The only tips I found with this type of flare were the Pisoni's (on Ann Hodge's site). The Pisoni #1 is just all-over narrower than Pfeiffer/ Mack, ending up with the same tip measurement of 7mm. Pisoni #2 is exactly the same in the belly and throat as Pfeiffer/ Mack, then suddenly opens up to 7.3mm. Pisoni #3 just seems too wide. So I don't think any of these are it.
I know that this flare at the tip is more characteristic of European tips, so I checked out Rigotti also. All of the Rigotti tips are wider in the throat and belly - definitely NOT what I'm looking for.
I think someone mentioned the sides of the reeds 'not holding together' very well on wide-bellied shapes. I have found this to be quite true. Even the Brannen X, that we all grew up using, doesn't hold together as well as the Pfeiffer Mack. I think the X means extra narrow in the throat, but definitely not in the belly.
Does anyone have any ideas about what this mystery tip this might be? I would really like to test our 'theory' about the 'V' shape, but it's an expensive experiment if you don't know what you're looking for!
Thanks for reading!
Carole
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