Author: huboboe
Date: 2015-07-04 08:34
Shawn is correct. This spine is not nearly as pronounced as the outside of the reed, but it is real.
For a graphic example, use a quarter as a template to draw a half circle, then take a dime and draw most of a half circle from each side of the larger half circle until they intersect in the center. This is highly exaggerated, but you can see how the interior 'spine' mirrors the exterior spine and also how the double radius interior accentuates the flat 'channels' that flank the spine on the outside.
On string instruments, as you change the length of the string, the vibrating portion of the string vibrates in a similar manner, giving a consistent timbre to the instrument.
Each note on a wind instrument is a different length of bore, in effect a different instrument. To produce the same timbre on each note of the instrument, each note will have a different set of frequencies to match the overtones of the fundamental of that note.
For a reed to be a 'good reed', it must be, in effect, a white noise generator, able to produce any set of frequencies the instrument asks for. A different set for each note. This is the difficulty in reed making, balancing the scrape to produce all frequencies evenly from high to low.
Smooth, even strokes and a smooth transition in the blend from thick to thin promote this. short, choppy strokes, scoops, cliffy transitions, particularly in the blend work against this.
I'm on vacation this month, but when I get back into the office again I will finish a project I've been intending to do for a long time and use a cad program to draw some real scale drawings of single and double radius gouge profiles. I'll post them here when I'm done with them...
Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com
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The Oboe BBoard
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