Author: jhoyla
Date: 2014-01-22 14:36
Rachel, I'm short scrape myself, so a few ideas to get you thinking. You will resolve this yourself, of course, but I hope this will "prod" your thoughts.
remember Martin Schuring's sterling advice - the golden rules of reedmaking:
1. Sharpen your knife
2. Don't make any mistakes
3. Adjust for function, not tone.
Your reedmaking is just fine. We all have bad periods, and we get through them. So there is light at the end of the tunnel. That said, let's go back to basics:
1. Are you tying too tight? Too close/over the end of the staple? Try backing off the thread tightness for the top two wraps before wrapping over, and aim to leave .5 mm staple projecting inside the reed. [justification: I'm looking for something that would affect ALL the reeds you make, and that may have changed (say) with the "frankenreed"?]
2. with the sharpest knife, the lightest touch, get the tip right. Then the blend and the back. Adjust for function. Still hard to blow? (short-scrape) dust in an extended V from the centre-back to the extreme edges of the blend. All four quadrants, same strokes - you know the drill.
Take everything. very. slowly.
Check you are not leaving "rails" up into the tip - this can kill response.
3. Check the opening and squeeze if necessary before testing in your oboe
4. Only adjust when you have decided what is wrong. If you don't know, keep playing ..
5. If I have a reed that doesn't play the low register well, I carefully thin out the channels hard up against the bark. It can really help! If it doesn't, I will sometimes extend the back by removing more bark. If the pitch drops I can clip it up, and then feather-scrape the extreme tip (especially corners) for responsiveness.
I really like Linda Walsh's CD for short-scrape. Her explanations are clear, and you can expect to get a playable reed by following her advice. Final adjustments should be done with almost zero downwards pressure on the knife - if nothing happens, go back to Rule 1 ...
Hope this helps,
J.
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