For Sale: Random aged tube cane
Monday September 10 2007
So I have a bunch of this tube cane for sale that’s pretty random. I’ve tried a bit, and can comment on some of the batches.
- One large batch of 1lb 10 oz of aged tube cane. Medium hardness. Decent cane. $50 per pound or $75 for the whole batch.*
- 7.2 oz of medium hard cane, perhaps alliaud? Aged, Medium hard hardness. Also decent cane. $25 for the batch*
- 4 oz of mixed cane. I know half of it is Danzi, but I don’t know the other half. Aged, medium to medium soft hardness. $12*
- 7.6 oz of Random cane, probably 2 types in there. Haven’t tried it. $20
- 3.5 ozs of unmarked cane, probably 1 type. Haven’t tried it. $7.
- 10.7 oz of cane marked “Sert” from 5/96. $30.*
- 14.6 oz of unmarked cane. Looks very good. Golden brown, perhaps Bonazza. $50.
If you want to purchase any of this, send me a holler. Prices don’t include shipping. If you care to buy all of it ($219 by my calculation) I’ll throw in free shipping.
I probably could gouging and scrape this cane and sell it for my reeds, but the time it takes to learn how to scrape a new kind of cane is too valuable for someone in the reed business. Making reeds is all about consistency; consistent cane; consistent gouge; consistent shape; consistent scrape. Once you get out of the consistency mode and into the experimental mode, your hourly rate goes plummeting.
Update: 1lb of batch is #1 sold (10 oz remaining×$31.25). Cane batches #2, #3 and #6 are sold.
A new soundclip…
Monday September 10 2007
—is down next to my blogroll. It’s part of the 1st movement of the Bach d’amore concerto I did with an amateur orchestra back in May. A couple of flubbed notes, but I did the phrasing I wanted to do so I was satisfied.
Read the RestFOR SALE: a lot of Chudnow Staples
Sunday September 09 2007
I received my stuff from Korea yesterday, and began unpacking. I realized that I had a lot of Chudnow staples that I’ll never use again, and don’t really want to keep, so here we go:
- 12 Sierra Silver staples×3 of them brand new and never used. $1.75 (regular $4.20)
- 10 Sierra Brass staples×5 of them brand new and never used, 5 others used maybe once $1.50 (reg $3.25)
- 2 CA silver staples×$2.00 (reg $4.95)
- 22 Chudnow Corkless Brass E staples×Always want to try them but thought they were too expensive? Buy these now at half the price! $3.00 (reg $6.00)
- 2 Chudnow Corkless Brass S staples×$2.75 (reg $5.75)
- Chudnow Mandrel×$16.00 (reg $34.75)
A minimum order of 10 staples is required. All staples fit my Chudnow Mandrel PERFECTLY…. If you want to buy all of the staples from me ($131.50), I’ll give you an additional 15% discount ($111.75). Prices do not include shipping.
UPDATE…: Chudnow E staples and Mandrel are SOLD….
Read the RestThe day of reed return remakes
Friday September 07 2007
Today I made a billion reeds. Unfortunately they were all for reed returns which are coming back or have come back to me. It’s very depressing work, but it is motivation to pay extra attention.
The problem with reed returns is that you really don’t always really know what to do in order to correct the problem. For example, an order from Georgia just said they were too small and shrinking even further. So the best I can do is to adjust the gouge to thicker sides and hope that the extra “beef” will solve the problem. And what if it doesn’t? Then I have some big decisions to make. Hopefully it won’t come to that.
My reedmaking is becoming automatic. This means that Since I’ve made over 30 reeds in the past three days, I’m starting to get my “groove” back after not making reeds consistently for several weeks after the move and then again after getting sick. Finally I’m starting to feel more automatic and put myself on “autopilot”. Thank God!
Read the RestToday’s work…
Thursday September 06 2007
It was a good day at the office today. Hrm— rather it was a good day at my dining room table. I followed up with my work as planned, thinning the sides even further on my fixed Graf machine to settle on a “beefy” but workable setting. They produce larger openings, and work very well when the tips are very VERY… VERY… thin. That means they take longer to make, and require more knife control and careful work. I made 5 of them on the machine, 3 with Bonazza and 2 with RDG… and they all took me an average of 30 minutes.
I also tried the other Graf machine which I have been using a lot for a while now, and beefed the setting up .02 mm, and beefed the sides up a bit, which didn’t make a whole huge amount of difference. I made two reeds on that machine which both turned out very well, as expected. Tomorrow, I might push the machine a bit further and thicken the sides further to see how far I can go before I notice significant detriments.
The two machines produce very different kinds of reeds. Most of my reed clients like reeds that require a bit of embouchure gripping, whether they’re aware of it or not. Many oboists don’t realize they bit a certain amount, but rather consider biting the actual usage of the jaw. But biting can be more than just jaw gripping (or “the crocodile bite” according to Tabuteau). Biting can also include “extreme lip compression” or other ways to compress reed openings in order to gain response that is otherwise lacking in the reed, or to cover improper unbalanced vibrations. This was the large problem with Patty Mitchell’s reeds, and once we got them vibrating correctly, she was able to stop “lip compressing” her reeds and open up her embouchure, further gaining flexibility.
My preference are the reeds with the latter Graf machine, simply because the less you compress, the more sound and tone there is. If the reed is correctly made, it will hold its tone together without the usage of unnecessary control with the embouchure. But most people find these kinds of reeds “too small” or have too small of openings because they’re so used to compressing or take too much reed in.
I got a lot of good reeds in my reed case, and they’re all going out shortly.
Read the Rest