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Reeds How much do you spend on reeds per hour of playing time?

VirusKiller

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Simple question for anyone who has been playing a while.

Work out how much you pay on reeds (cane or synthetic) on average per month (a).
Work out how many hours playing time you put in on average per month (b).
Divide (a) by (b).
What do you get?
 
Not sure what constitutes playing a while (about 8 months for me), but anyway...

My (cane) reeds seem to last me quite a long time. No idea why but I seem to get much more playing out of them than I did from my clarinet reeds (bigger reeds?, lower frequencies?). At least a month, maybe more. 1-2 hours a day divided between 2 saxes, £2.50 (ish) per reed. Works out about 8p/hr. Probably a bit cheaper if I kept records of how long they last. Then again, I've had a couple of duds that I'll probably never use.
 
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I have no idea. A tiny fraction of the cost of the diesel I put in the car and the alchohol I pour down my neck, for sure!
 
Almost Zero ...

Since I started in June 2010 ...

I have damaged 2 reeds ... [Clumsy bugger ain't I] :)

Other than that - I haven't needed to replace any reeds ... :D

I play at least an hour per day and hardly ever miss a day ... :w00t:

I use Rico Royal, Rico Hemke and Rico La Voz ...

All seem fine to this n00b ... :mrcool
 
I bought four synthetic reeds in early November at a total cost (ncluding postage) of $80. I play for three hours a day. That makes about about 90 hours a month.

I am now halfway through them, i.e. I expect that all four will expire in about early May. This will make about 540 hours. Projected cost is about 15 cents an hour. But I can afford this because I don't gamble.
 
Since I started in June 2010 ...

I have damaged 2 reeds ... [Clumsy bugger ain't I] :)

Other than that - I haven't needed to replace any reeds ... :D

I play at least an hour per day and hardly ever miss a day ... :w00t:

I use Rico Royal, Rico Hemke and Rico La Voz ...

All seem fine to this n00b ... :mrcool



I can confirm Sunrays Reed's cost's him nothing.:w00t:

As he is often seen on Stiffkey marshes harvesting reed and lug worm. :)))
 
I alternate between a half dozen reeds. When one becomes a little soft I take a slither off the end with a reed cutter which increases its lifespan further. I play for quite a few hours a week but rarely have to buy a new box. I've got loads in different strengths so I can find what reed/s suit my latest mouthpiece.

In fact I spend far more on mouthpieces than I'll ever spend on reeds! Lets say £30/35 a year on reeds whereas mouthpieces is just staggering! :w00t:
 
Sounds accross the marshes ...

I can confirm Sunrays Reed's cost's him nothing.:w00t:

As he is often seen on Stiffkey marshes harvesting reed and lug worm. :)))

Harvesting reed ...

Now there's a thought ... [Handmade - High Quality - Norfolk Reeds]

Can I get a Business Development Grant? [Just to help create new jobs you understand] ;}

As for the worms, [fishermen pay a fortune out for a few dozen of them] £££ $$$ ...

So While I dig - I sing:

Nobody likes me everybody hates me ...
Finks That I eat Worms ...
Bite their heads off ...
Slurps their juice out ...
Throws their skins away ...

Improv goes here ... :w00t:
 
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on Saturday I bought 2 new packs of reeds - a 3-pack of rico royal 2.5 and and a 3-pack of rico royal 3. Each pack cost me £8.25. I was shocked - why have reeds suddenly shot up in price, I'm sure I only paid £7.25ish for the last 3-pack I bought, probably no more than 3 months ago!
Anyway, I have been persuaded to persevere with the ones I'm currently playing and not open the new packs til I'm desperate :)))
So even if I buy 12 packs a year (which I don't think I do!) at 3 hours a day practice, pretty much every day, that's about 7p an hour, I think. As said elsewhere, the diesel in the car and the odd bottle of the Pinot Grigio probably far outweighs that. :sax: :welldone
 
Don't know and Sorry don't really care,just wish I could get more playable reeds out of a box of 10:(
 
The amount of time and frustration I've expended on reeds is ridiculous.
About six weeks ago I bought my first synthetic reed which has worked for me for an hour, or so, a day and show no signs of fatigue.
It does it reliably! That is important.
I impatient about wasting time fiddling around with reeds in the limited time when I should be having a blow.

I feel that by now, where we have moved on from using animal bones as drum sticks and antlers as trumpets we should embrace 'reeds' made of modern materials. Ones that work every time.
We have the most sophisticated, computer designed instruments and mouthpieces, yet are still at the mercy of the variability of a bit of bark. Surely that is not good enough.
Do you buy a new set of tyres for your car, only to discard one because it is not up to the job?
 
Reed my Lips ...

Sounds to me Alan ...

Like you "badly need" to buy a *Sunray* - Hand made Reed - Guaranteed to last 10 years ... [Honest] ... It will provide you with a "totally reliable reed" with unsurpassed tone production irrespective of the mouthpiece you use. :w00t:

Full money back "insurance plan" ... It's an absolute snip at only £95 each [don't forget - 10 year guarantee] You know it makes sense ... ;}

A full range of sizes available ... Roll up ... Roll up ... Who wants some??? :mrcool
 
Me too, but it's around 95% playable for me.

I would go along with that. Maybe another survey could be taken that correlates reed usage/rejection rates against the years you have been playing. Not wishing to pre-judge, but on personal and anecdotal evidence I suspect that the greater the players experience, the fewer reeds get cast aside as "unplayable". I think maybe the reed industry gets a bit of a bashing by impatient starters........
 
I started this thread as I was wondering about the relative costs of cane and synthetic reeds. For me, the removal of one important variable (reed inconsistency) was my main reason for using synthetic reeds at this stage in my playing. Having said that, I've had my share of issues figuring out what is the best strength for me, mainly due to a dodgy first synthetic reed! Hopefully I'm sorted now, for the time being at least.

I suspect that with time (a commodity that many of us don't have) and practice, it's possible to optimize the number of good reeds from a box via scraping, clipping, etc., but this is easier said than done.
 
I suspect that with time (a commodity that many of us don't have) and practice, it's possible to optimize the number of good reeds from a box via scraping, clipping, etc., but this is easier said than done.

It's not that hard once you getting used to it. Johnboy got me started and now its relatively easy ;} I prefer cane reeds to synthetic ones as I find them easier to play. Favourites at this moment are Rico Jazz Selects Unfiled 2M but still play Rico Royals 2.5 and 3.
 
on Saturday I bought 2 new packs of reeds - a 3-pack of rico royal 2.5 and and a 3-pack of rico royal 3. Each pack cost me £8.25. I was shocked - why have reeds suddenly shot up in price, I'm sure I only paid £7.25ish for the last 3-pack I bought, probably no more than 3 months ago!

That seems very dear to me! I buy packs of ten Royals at: Soprano (£17), Alto (£21), Tenor (£27) and a pound more for the Jazz Selects.
 
That seems very dear to me! I buy packs of ten Royals at: Soprano (£17), Alto (£21), Tenor (£27) and a pound more for the Jazz Selects.

That's what I thought, Paul. But the shop inquestion previously used to be one of the cheapest around, both on and off line. Admittedly I haven't checked recently.
I've only ever bought one box of 10. I found that by the time I needed the last reeds in the box they had dried out too much to play at all, and no amount of soaking seemed to help. That's a prob with the Rico Rotals as they're not individually wrapped. So since then I have bought 3-packs.

As for being able to play reeds straight out of the box (commented elsewhere), I haven't had a problem with new reeds - 100% playable from day one, so experience didn't come into the equation (as suggested) for me.
 
I would go along with that. Maybe another survey could be taken that correlates reed usage/rejection rates against the years you have been playing. Not wishing to pre-judge, but on personal and anecdotal evidence I suspect that the greater the players experience, the fewer reeds get cast aside as "unplayable". I think maybe the reed industry gets a bit of a bashing by impatient starters........

I really don't know how you manage to get so many working out of a box,I've tried all this soaking and stroking and manipulating the reed before you play it, but have found that the only thing that does seem to work slightly is the soaking,lets say I start with a box of 10 rico royals 2.5 I'll be lucky to get 2 or 3 to work staight from the box with a suck the rest are generally like planks so you soak them and if yur lucky you might get 1 or 2 that are more playable but never as good as the original 3 that were good straight from the box,I thought I'd cracked it when I bought 2 LA VOZ med and they both worked perfecty so I bought a box of 10,guess what back to the 3 in a box routine,must have got lucky with the 2 seperates I bought.I also bought 2 frederick Henke at the same time, sme thing both played brilliantly but as yet I haven't been back for a box so I don't know how that is going to work out yet

At the same time I bought a plasticover 2.5,a BARI med,and a FIBRACELL med, and the plasticover was probably the best out of the bunch but not brill I don't know if it needs to be played in but I have given it a few goes and it really isn't good.The BARI was just downright WEIRD and the fibracell was so inconsistant through the range from top to bottom it was a waste of time,I've had a few tries with these reeds to give them a fair chance and try to get used to them but they really don't get any better.next stop will probably be a legare(is that right) or the other one that people seem to rate(can't remember the name),so this reed thing goes on for me I wish could just buy a box of ten and play them all...john

I think I should say that maybe this is more noticable on alto's than tenors because I've never had a problem when I have given my tenor a blow maybe they are a more forgiving instrument,who knows????
 
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Playful Plug ...

See post #13 [in this thread] John ...

I think it will solve all your reed problems mate ... ;}
 

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