 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: stevensfo
Date: 2006-03-13 13:28
I wonder if anyone could recommend a reliable reed that can be ordered over the internet and delivered to Europe?
I'm in Italy, and the closest music shop (1 hour away) sells only Ricos at ridiculous prices. I've used them for a while, but really I'd like to try something else.
I read someone recommending Fox reeds a while ago, but for some very strange reason the online stores won't ship them to Europe. This is the first time I've ever encountered this problem.
If anyone would be kind enough to pop some in a jiffy bag and send them to me, I would of course reimburse you completely before you send them.
Best wishes
Steve
(stevensfo on Clarinet board)
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2006-03-13 17:32
Steve --
If you are looking for a reed that is easy to play and requires no adjustment, may I suggest that you write to Katherine Needleman (kkneedleman@yahoo.com) and see if she would ship some of her reeds to you.
She offers reeds in a fairly wide price range ($12 - $25). They are reeds that she has made for her own use, but which didn't quite meet the standards she needs as the principal oboist of the Baltimore Symphony.
In my experience, these reeds are very consistent, and are superior to any machine made student reed you might try. Naturally enough, her more expensive reeds are the better-sounding ones, but none of them are "bad".
If you are intent on using a mass-produced reed, I know a very good oboist who sometimes uses the Lesher "Artist" series. But she does adjust them a bit.
Susan
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Author: stevensfo
Date: 2006-03-13 18:26
Susan,
Thanks so much for your advice. I did a quick search and Katherine Needleman does indeed sell her reeds.
I'll contact her and order a few now.
Regards,
Steve
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Author: Dutchy
Date: 2006-03-13 22:11
Giardinelli's will ship reeds outside of the U.S. You have to order by phone, via their 800 number. They carry Fox reeds and Gower reeds, both of which I like.
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Author: stevensfo
Date: 2006-03-14 06:05
Thanks Dutchy, I didn't know that!
By the way, is there a big difference between american/european cut reeds? Is one easier than the other for a beginner?
Steve
PS Are you originally from Holland?
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Author: HautboisJJ
Date: 2006-03-14 07:39
Definitely, the American scrape is much more responsive (when you consider that new bies tend to bite a lot and tense up too much.) but projection is a challenge, unless the reed is superbly made of course (not discussing personal variables here.)
I myself play the Dutch scrape, but for emergency purposes, since i do not play the American scrape, www.kge-reeds.com works the best for me. And according to my knowledge even busy professionals like Simon Eames (principal Malaysian Philharmonic, late Anthony Camden's student) plays them, in fact, the whole oboe section plays on his reeds.
Howard
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Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-03-16 18:01
... quick google finds K-Ge Reeds home page (Australia) and they supply pro & student reeds in Euro (U scrape) and US (W scrape) designs, they have good backlit illustrations of the two different types
Commercial taper scrape (or clarinet scrape as i dub it) work OK as student starter reed, but contoured hand-made reeds are so much better when embouchure gets stronger and student physically capable of getting fussier about intonation details
The U-scrape method i first learned in UK had several stages, the first being basic taper scrape like the commercial variety (except it was shorter, just below midway) and next, contoured in the heart, and later on contoured in the back. These progressive stages of learning the reed style seemed to tie in with the range of notes student was learning, we didn't do comprehensive learning method 'way back then, we worked in middle register, extended downwards, then extended upwards gradually. By the time i was on 2nd octave (3rd year!) and hit high C (second half of year 3!) and doing deep rollover that's when we did more contouring in lower back of reed, and by then the reed was debarked to two-thirds down the cane.
That meant that when we had to clip off a frayed tip, we could still rework the shorter length reed to within 3 mm of the thread as a taper scrape (sacrificing all the contouring) and use it as a retired practice reed.
Don't know if this reed style is still used in UK since globalisation, feedback please?
Fully developed U-scrape (old style?) Brit reed was a three-zone affair, somewhat similar to hand-made american scrape, only base of the back is U shaped, and tip is U-shaped. Also hump (or as it was called there, the bridge) is narrower (about 3 mm) and thinner (less woody), so it's more flexible at that part of the reed than the american scrape. Top (head) of spine, about 2-3 fibres below base of U-tip, has a tiny rounded off & blended knob on it. That was 'neutral embouchure' point, like a home key ridge or dot on keyboards.
Whole reed was finished off very smooth, remember teacher saying, leave that until tomorrow, see how much wood's grown back on (raised grain) before sharpening knife very fine and smoothing reed surface like silk. Nowadays i'm using fine emery paper instead, eyes not wot they used to be. Anyway, this method only works really well on fine-grain cane, lots of coarser grain around nowadays.
This reed style made the complex brighter sound prefered in UK at that time, and entire reed is very responsive & flexible (when struggling student gets it right!), whereas the american scrape is darker sounding with the tip being the most responsive part and the rest of the reed more supportive.
The big difference with the fully contoured U-style reed is the lips have to be more mobile, nibbling the reed a lot more to play the tip, heart or basement windows more effectively. This is actually less tiring for the embouchure as muscles are constantly twitching, changing, adjusting ... hm, this concept is very marine, Brits live on an island surrounded by the sea, eh? The american reed requires a comparatively static embouchure with roll-over & roll-out as needed, and hey, N. America is a big continental land-mass. Guess geographical environment really does shape our different styles more than we think?
Commercial U-scrape tapered reeds just aren't the same as contoured U-scrape reeds, so are Euro U-scrapes (Dutch, German, etc.) more like the commericial taper scrape, or are they contoured types?
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