Confused about Reed Preparation

[daveq]

I allways stir my hot tea with the reed I am going to use.they taste better and it softens them up a treat.

 

[Basil]

I always thought tea was one of these must avoids or else you get sticky pads, like gargling evostick or something. I only drink Earl Grey. Now there's a stage name !

 

[nick_cook]

You can get bubble gum flavoured reeds on e-bay!!!!

:laugh:

 

[nick_cook]

You can get bubble gum flavoured reeds on e-bay!!!!

:laugh:

 

[Basil]

That would be Double Reeds then ?

 

[ochaye_mckay]

Hi,
JustinChune said (about reed prep) - - "and check them for balance. If they play the same both sides then that's it" - -. I can't work-out what this means. Can anyone explain please? Am I missing an easy way to check whether a reed is ok or not?

Dave.

 

[nick_cook]

I'm with you there Dave. I couldn't work it out either. A reed only goes on the mouthpiece one way - doesn't it??

 

[Pete Thomas]

Perhaps it's the left right balance. Not sure how you would check that apart from maybe hold it to the light. You should see the thicker "heart" of the reed which obviously is best if it's central as you look ar the underside or top of the reed with the tip pointing up.

You can sometimes fix this to a cerrtain extent by using reedrush or fine emery paper to sand down the heavier side, aiming for a symmetrical look. I'll add a bit to the reed section of my main site about this soon....

 

[spike]

Left and right - not - front and back, sometimes a reed is stiffer on one side. Since they're made from natural material they're all different even though the cut may be the same. If the fibres run more densely through one part of the reed and less in another it'll be unbalanced, reeds are often "stuffy" because of a high density of fibres, holding 'em up to the light can give a good idea of how a reed is going to behave.

hey webmaster, why are the typeface weights switched?
P.S. Hello Pete, fancy meeting you here, my reply box is yellow and the text is bold face, but it's okay after I've posted. ?

gruss - spike

 

[Pete Thomas]

spike wrote:
hey webmaster, why are the typeface weights switched?
P.S. Hello Pete, fancy meeting you here, my reply box is yellow and the text is bold face, but it's okay after I've posted. ?

Temporary glitch. Experimenting with CSS for textarea on main site, and the forum uses the same stylesheet. I quite like the yellow, but will sort the bold typeface or maybe not. I notice my spelling misatakes more easily with bold.

 

[maggiesimpson]

Well, when everyone's finished blinding me with science about computer stuff, that I'm never going to understand in 'a rain of pig's pudding' as they used to say when I lived in Rochdale, can they tell me if, when a reed looks a little translucent at the top edge, does that mean it's time to chuck it?

I have seen reed cutters advertised on the web and I wondered if people trim the edges of reeds to make them last longer?

If that's the case, does trimming change the properties of a reed?

And what about soaking new reeds in a glass of decent vodka?
Do you think that's just an excuse to drink vodka?
Thanks for your advice


🙂

 

[Pete Thomas]

Sorry about that. Back to the topic:

Trimming a reed is a last resort to make it last just a tiny bit longer if you are in a fix. Or trimming it when new will make it a harder strength, but possibly compromise the architecture of the reed, ie the "heart" (a thicker bit than the tip) becomes closer to the tip than may be optimal.

You'll find more info on the main site under saxophone reeds.

I sometimes soak reeds in water a bit, it speeds up the playability by a few minutes. If you forget they are in the ater for a few days you end up with pet you don't want, so Vodka is not a bad idea as you probably won't get the mould growth if it does stay there too long.

Some people freeze their reeds, there's many things you can do to try to sound better than John Coltrane.

 

[Pete Thomas]

This might explain a bit better:

The slightly shaded area represents the thicker bit of reed you would see if you hold it up to the light. The heart is very important.

Imagine taking a bit off the tip as you would with a reed cutter, the heart therefore becomes closer to the tip so upsetting the possibly ideal contour as in this pic of a reed that has had too much trimmed:

 

[justin_chune]

My view of reed cutters is that they will have ruined more reeds than they improved. Also, you will be lucky to find one that cuts the same shape as the tip of your mouthpiece. I have reed cutters for my instruments and never use them.

I'm always surprised at how much some people find to do with reeds. Sanding, scraping, polishing, soaking etc. All I do is wash the new ones under the tap and check them for playability. If they are OK then that's it. I slap em on and play. If you want to check if your "pet" reed is past it, just check it against a fresh one. How about soaking new reeds in a single malt scotch? Now, there's an idea. 🙂

If you want to smooth the rough scraped part of a reed, don't sand it. Instead, stroke it gently towards the tip using the side of a round pen. This method crushes and closes the open ends of the tube fibres to give a smooth finish. It also stops saliva entering the reed, I'm told.

 

[maggiesimpson]

Thanks for the pic and diagrams, Pete, I understand now.

And thanks for the advice re: cutters, Justin.

One more thing...apart from damaging a reed - splitting, knocking a chunk out, etc., how will I know it's time to throw it away and start a new one?

What will change about the way it plays - will it go squeeky or what?
:S

 

[philthd]

i changed the strings on my guitar the other day (stick with me, the point is coming)
when i used to gig a lot i changed my strings absolute minimum once a week, but now i just do some church playing and not much else its probably been a couple of months, and i only changed them because i broke one.
thing is, i had entirely forgotten how much better the guitar sounds with crisp new strings on it, the tone is brighter, the sustain is rounder, the tuning more accurate and so on. you can play on old knackered strings and sound kinda ok, but its better to play on nice new ones.

similarly, mostly for economic reasons, i used to play sax reeds until huge lumps of them fell off in my mouth and it was literally impossible to get any sound out of. my tone suffered, as did my chops, but they could still be sued to make some music.
but a good reed in a good rotation system on the period just after youve broken it in will sound better.


essentially - i think it depends how much you care