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jrintaha
Member
At a whim, I decided to try out those £4 a box of 10 reeds they peddle on eBay. Ri Yin was the brand. Link: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251362407924?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649. I imagined the QC would be a bit iffy, but if two out of ten played fine, I'd have my money's worth.
They were packed in cardboard sleeves instead of plastic reed protectors, but all of them were intact regardless... well, kind of. Here's a photo of five of them, picked randomly:
(click for full size).
I don't believe I need to point out the multitude of things that were wrong with them. Just look at the color: more or less the same as our parquet floor. Never seen a reed colored like that.
As you can better see in the next photo, they're not even close to being symmetrical. Might not be obvious from the photo, but the bark continues to the very tip on the right hand side. Needless to say, this reed did not play at all.
Not even close to being symmetrical this way either:
The cut is very coarse. Like sandpaper on your bottom lip. Need to sand the surface before playing. I have no idea what that discoloration in the tip and in the heart is.
Two out of three were like this: the grain doesn't run straight.
How many were playable? One, and not exactly well. The rest of the reeds seemed generally quite hard for a 2.5 strength, but the one that did actually play in the whole range of my sax felt like a 1 or 1½. The 2nd best one I could get to play after putting in a couple of minutes with a sharp knife. Half of them did not play at all - something I've never encountered before. The rest gave squeaks, didn't play in the bottom range, or just hissed a lot, probably because half the air was escaping between the table of the mouthpiece and the warped reed.
I have to wonder, how many boxes of Ri Yin reeds did they have to go through to get the two good-looking reeds pictured in the eBay listing? 😵
They were packed in cardboard sleeves instead of plastic reed protectors, but all of them were intact regardless... well, kind of. Here's a photo of five of them, picked randomly:
I don't believe I need to point out the multitude of things that were wrong with them. Just look at the color: more or less the same as our parquet floor. Never seen a reed colored like that.
As you can better see in the next photo, they're not even close to being symmetrical. Might not be obvious from the photo, but the bark continues to the very tip on the right hand side. Needless to say, this reed did not play at all.
Not even close to being symmetrical this way either:
The cut is very coarse. Like sandpaper on your bottom lip. Need to sand the surface before playing. I have no idea what that discoloration in the tip and in the heart is.
Two out of three were like this: the grain doesn't run straight.
How many were playable? One, and not exactly well. The rest of the reeds seemed generally quite hard for a 2.5 strength, but the one that did actually play in the whole range of my sax felt like a 1 or 1½. The 2nd best one I could get to play after putting in a couple of minutes with a sharp knife. Half of them did not play at all - something I've never encountered before. The rest gave squeaks, didn't play in the bottom range, or just hissed a lot, probably because half the air was escaping between the table of the mouthpiece and the warped reed.
I have to wonder, how many boxes of Ri Yin reeds did they have to go through to get the two good-looking reeds pictured in the eBay listing? 😵
