Author: oboist2
Date: 2019-08-07 01:34
Dear Barry, Dane's advice is comprehensive but he is coming from the viewpoint of a long scraped reed, whereas, I assume, like most players in Australia, you are playing on a short scraped reed. The architecture ofd the reed is somewhat different and generally, the shorter scrape reeds use thinner sides and slightly wider cane. When you make a reed, I would start systematically and get your tip right first. Only once you have got your tip right, then start wirking downwards with the reed. The blend is quite important, and once you have that right with the tip, test crow your reed, and the optimal crow pitch is a C. Generally I have found, that the closer I am to that C crow, the more the pitch will be to A=440. Once you have achieved that, you are in a better position to balance the rest of the reed. Remember to only change or experiment with one variable at a time....otherwise it is difficult to work out what is working and what isn't.
I have tried a variety of reed styles over the 40 + years of reed making, and these days make a long scrape reed ( but it varies from the average American scrape), but the length of my reeds have not varied much - my completed weed is between 71 mm and 72 mm, and I am using a 47 mm staple. I tend to always use the same staples - Mostly Loree , and sometimes Chiarugi -2 . If you have a mish mash of different staples, again it is hard to tell what is working well or not and you end up having to scrape every reed quite differently.
If you dont already have it, Graham Salter's book "Understanding the Oboe Reed" is a weighty tome that will give you some excellent ideas.
Be careful of your tie on length. I add 26 mm to the length of the staple to get the overall length of the reed before I start to clip. Occasionally I do experiment with that a little, as my first teacher used shorter cane lengths than one can normally buy and he gave me the 26 mm rule, so sometimes, especially in summer, I tend to add 47 mm instead.
Good luck and if I can help in any way, let me know.
Geoff
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