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Re: Reed turnover

Author: vboboe
Date: 2006-06-25 19:36

CONGRATS oboegy on your high success rate with reed-making!

... well, after asking that spur o' the moment question, realised (like oboegy) had to actually do some tallying up and 'fess up to all of you ...
so, currently in circulation, or in the wings = 20
6 retirees used for home practice
3 'best' reeds for performance (which are past their prime and should be retired and replaced for next season)
2 band rehearsal reeds, also retiree quality now
2 lesson reeds, one plays (teacher fixed it) other needs some fixing (my lesson!)
4 so-so 'dunno' reeds with quirks, dunno if they're worth fixing or not
3 blanks currently waiting to be made into new reeds

Next, when i count all the reed packaging tubes or cases salvaged from the time i started in Sept 2004, there are 46 of those, and i know some other cases went out repackaged as new hand-made U-scrape reeds to a friend, about 10 (so that means i used up 56 in about 18 months), and i know i've made some of my own which have died this year already, about 6 ... all that adds up to 62 + current 20 = 82, let's say for mathematical convenience and allowing for forgottens, that's a round 7 dozen in 2 full years, or average 3.5 dozen (42 reeds) a year so far.

Dare i crunch these numbers with an averaged commercial cost of Cdn$15 each (about US$13.25) ... Ack! Staggering!

In comparison ... new brass tubes cost 2.75 (have to replace some occasionally when the cork starts breaking off the bottom end), and each piece of new average-quality ready-to-tie cane costs 2.50, plus a bit of thread, new DIY hand-made reed only costs $5.50 in materials. DIY wastage could be as high as 66% to meet same annual expense as buying commercial or somebody else's hand-made reeds

... uh ... (clearing throat) my american scrape mis-adventures have been higher than that this last 6 months, so i had better ignore j.l's (beep) laundry basket and hope things will get better :-)

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