Author: huboboe
Date: 2013-02-14 18:33
Attachment: Checkpoints.jpg (59k)
Attachment: 3-window reed.jpg (175k)
Attachment: Hewitt EH reed \'80.jpg (115k)
In 'The Oboe Reed Book' by Jay Light, he suggests you put a laundry basket next to your reed bench. When the basket is full of your discards you MAY know what you are doing.
Seriously, I think you are going about this the right way. A couple of thoughts about reed structure. First, think of photographs you have seen of mountainous desert country, like death Valley. Where a river spils out of a canyon onto the plain it makes a spreading alluvial fan which is thick at the canyon mouth, thins rapidly at first, then more gradually. That's what your blend should look like - it's not just an angle...
Second, symmetry above all! Your reed should be symmetrical blade for blade and symmetrical across the spine on each blade. Four quadrants, and whatever you do in one you should do in the others also - except for adjustments to bring one quadrant or blade into symmetry, of course.
If you view the reed en on from the tip and squeeze ti closed slowly you can see side to side and blade to blade imbalances if the reed closes asymmetrically.
Since you are taking the trouble to log so much information, I can't recommend strongly enough that you get a dial indicator. This will confirm that you are hitting your target architecture and will highlight non-symmetries.
I have appended three scans. One shows the most important measuring spots on an oboe reed of the style I make. The point in the middle of the heart should be between .44 - .50 mm, no thicker than .50 but no thinner than .42.
The corners of the tip at .04 - .05, the center of the tip .07. If you can build your reed to those basic measurements, the crow will tell you everything else you need to know.
The 3-window scrape goes back to my comments in the other thread about windows. It is from a college text, 'The Woodwinds", by Everette L. Tim, c. 1971, Allyn & Bacon, 1974. (Louisiana State University). It is a different approach to the windows concept and demonstrates that windows are an adjunct to and not a necessary feature of this style of reed. I tried this for a while and found it intriguing, but ultimately returned to my own well trodden path.
The third is measurements of a Stevens Hewitt EH reed I got from a former student who studied with him for a time and brought it back with her. It was a wonderful reed and I have modeled my own EH reeds on it ever since. You may need to adjust the finished length depending on your crook...
So, enough for one day. Keep it up!
Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com
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