Reeds acid reed

Certainly it will make the reed taste of vinegar -you may like this or not, plus the vinegar will possibly damage hard rubber and metal plating on mouthpieces and ligatures
He's going to let it evaporate. The acid in vinegar is called acetic acid. This acetic acid is what gives it it's characteristic vinegar taste and smell. Acetic acid is what we call a volatile acid. That means that it evaporates into the air. There won't be any left in the reed when it has evaporated. All the acid will be in the air. The reed won't taste of vinegar because there won't be any vinegar in it or on it. It won't hurt the mouthpiece or ligature because there won't be anything left in, or on, the reed to hurt them.

Having said that, I would advise using distilled spirit vinegar, which is effectively a dilute acetic acid solution, because wine/cider/malt and especially balsamic vinegars contain other substances that you probably don't want in your reed.
 
He's going to let it evaporate. The acid in vinegar is called acetic acid. This acetic acid is what gives it it's characteristic vinegar taste and smell. Acetic acid is what we call a volatile acid. That means that it evaporates into the air. There won't be any left in the reed when it has evaporated. All the acid will be in the air. The reed won't taste of vinegar because there won't be any vinegar in it or on it. It won't hurt the mouthpiece or ligature because there won't be anything left in, or on, the reed to hurt them.

Having said that, I would advise using distilled spirit vinegar, which is effectively a dilute acetic acid solution, because wine/cider/malt and especially balsamic vinegars contain other substances that you probably don't want in your reed.

The reed will need to be 100 percent dessicated to ensure that no acetic acid remains. Also note that this is a public forum I would caution against others repeating without understanding the risks.

There's a good chance that the reed will be more impacted by the repeated drying, heating and soaking, than the exposure itself.

From my limited knowledge -lignins (which can be thought of as naturally occurring polymers) would be better manipulated using alkali if you're seeking to alter the cellular structure of plant fibre
 
To make my reed last longer I used to ....

.... wipe off/dry efter playing
.... have a flame from an alcohol lamb to dance over the flat arts of the reed to get rid of bacteria
.... cover the reed in salt to soak out the moisture for 12-24 hours
.... store them flat in a reed guard
.... before I play I place the reed guard with the reed in a glas to soak up water. Just the end of the reed. The channels in the reed are soaking water.

Nowadays I'm playing plasticcover.
 
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From my limited knowledge -lignins (which can be thought of as naturally occurring polymers) would be better manipulated using alkali if you're seeking to alter the cellular structure of plant fibre
Chemically you are right. That will change the intricate system of fibers water and lignin to something else, which is probably a too large change. The observation that lignin is soluble in vinegar while vinegar can keep lignin in wood suggest there is some wiggle room there that I want to explore.

For people who want to try this at home, here is a vinegar safety data sheet.


The thing not mentioned on this sheet is that frequent use of vinegar keeps your immune system in an alarm state that is not healthy in the long term.
 
Did the mold make the sound dry?

I've never had mold on a reed so have no idea of the effect on sound... But if i did have mold... I wouldn't play it to find out!

Mind you, I did start getting mold in my reed flute, which gets much damper than a sax reed (and is the same plant) - despite all the folk remedies... I use hand sanitizer left over from COVID... Works really well.
None of those 120 had visible mold on it. The only moldy reeds I have seen came from a humidor.
Never played on moldy reeds.
 
Something happened.

After heating the reed, reed guard, vinegar solution and the plastic container most of the vinegar smell disappeared. No vinegar smell was detected during heating, so it didn't evaporate. About the same amount of fluid as before the experiment.
The reed feels slightly stronger and is a bit darker.

Time to let it dry with the reed guard.
 
Good idea.

Also there are more bacteria on plastic pallets than on wooden pallets.
I think this is the right moment to point out that there are bacteria everywhere.
And that is not a problem, as long as they are not the kind of bacteria (a minority) that could give you some illness.
.....
Actually, at our place of work they clean with bacterial solutions (there must also be some kind of detergent in there). The idea is that when you cover the surfaces with harmless bacteria, there is no room for pathogenic bacteria to grow. Studies have shown that this works.
I always get a bit frustrated and angry when health officials use rules that seem to imply that you need to work in a sterile environment. Sterile environments are not healthy, we need to keep our immune system in shape by exposing ourselves to (harmless) intruders.
 

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