A HISTORICAL MOMENT!!!

Friday July 13 2007

BEHOLD…!!! THE… REED…!!!

On this day. July 13th. Cooper has made one of his finest reeds he has ever made.

Specs:

• Weber 1-B shape
• Weber Staple
• Cane: Grimaud
• Graf gouge (.64 down the middle, .45 on the sides)
• Crows: double Cs
• Tuning: A=440

Lengths:

• total = 69.2
• bottom of staple to end of thread = 46.8
• bottom of staple to bottom of window = 51
• bottom of staple to beginning of heart = 61.5
• bottom of staple to bottom corner of tip = 66
• bottom of staple to middle of tip = 67.

Thickness:

• Back (closer to windows) heart spine location = .46
• Front (closer to integration line) heart spine location = .37
• Left rail thickness = .38 *
• Right rail thickness = .42
• Thinnest right window spot (right behind the heart) = .32
• Thinnest Left rail thickness = .22 *
• Thickness of middle of extreme tip = .03
• Thickness of corner of extreme tip = .01

Other:

• Clipped corners
• The tip is not offset clipped (1 blade slightly longer than the other)

*As learned from Mr. Weber, scraping the left side of the rail and window (left side when tip is facing straight up) while your blades are slipped right-handed (for right handers, your top blade would be slipped to the right if your tip is facing upward) helps the sides settle against each other, thus forming a tighter seal and settling in against each other better.

Barbara has her groove back!

Friday July 13 2007

For the past two weeks, I’ve been working with no Alliaud, RDG… R/GO Bargain Basement, or Bonazza cane, my three staple sources. I’ve been documenting my struggles with Ghys and Rigotti, and have been frustrated playing reeds that are not up to my standard of tone and such. The ghys have been usable, but nothing great while the Rigotti has been a complete disaster.

I’ve been starting to worry.

“Am I in an oboe reed slump?”

“Maybe my gouging machines are off!”

“Is the weather changing?”

Well, I said, “ENOUGH…!” and finally reached for my prized Grimaud cane (prized because 1. it’s my favorite cane, and 2. It’s expensive.) I scraped up a couple reeds with the Grimaud, and Voila! There’s that dark, round, Klein-like tone that I love making. It wasn’t me, it was the silly cane!

So, my advice for all you gouging-machine-tinkerers-and-messer-uppers: When making adjustments, always use cane that you’re very familiar with. And always keep some of your favorite cane available to test if its the gouge that’s messed up, or just you.

Holding out for my cane.

Friday July 13 2007

I’m trying to hold out for the month until I return back to the States. In Oregon, I have a whole bunch of cane reserves.

1.5 lbs of RDG… R/GO Bargain Basement I received for a Christmas present

Cane bought from Leiladog aka Sharon Meekins of NJ, recently on Ebay.

(above: Just one of my 5 batches of cane.)

Batch #2 ($275.00)

• 6 pounds of Vandoren cane from 2002

Batch #6 ($52.98)

• 9 pounds of Donati EH cane from 2000

Batch #9 ($356.00)
9 Pounds of cane ranging from 1992-1998

• Unspecified amounts of Donati, Bonazza, Rigotti, SERF…, MCW…, Ghys and maybe .75 lbs of California cane from Charles DR.

Batch #14 ($280.00)

• 4 lbs of Oboeworks cane from 1999
• 1lb Pisoni from 1999
• ½ lb Bonazza from 1998
• ¼ lb Marca from 2000

Batch #23 ($232.50)

• 1lb Alliaud 10.5-11 from 1992
• 1lb Donati/Chudnow 10-10.5 from 1995
• .5 lb Loree 10-10.5 from 2004
• .5 lb Danzi 10.5-11 from NO YEAR… LISTED…
• .5 lb Pisoni 10-10.5 from 1997
• .5 lb Donati 10-10.5 from 1994
• .25 lb Alliaud/Midwest 10-10.5 from 1997
• .5 lb Oboeworks cane 10-11 (yes, unsorted)
• .25 lb Danzi 10.5-11 NO YEAR… LISTED…
• .25 lb Glotin/MMI 10-10.5 from 2002
• .5 lb Mystery cane (?!) NO YEAR… LISTED…
• .5 lb Rigotti/Charles 10-10.5 from 2000

Total spent: $1196.48

Amount of Cane received 26.5 pounds of oboe cane. 9 pounds of English Horn cane.

Considering most cane sells for about $90-$110 per pound, the oboe cane alone would have cost me probably $2650, and the English Horn cane sells for somewhere between $70-90.00 a pound, I figure the total cost would have been somewhere over $3000.

Now. Of course I have all this cane, and I’m not sure if it’s all that great. I’ve used most of the types of cane, but some I’ve never use before is:

• SERF…
• MCW…
• Danzi
• Marca
• Loree
• OboeWorks

I’ve heard oboeworks cane was some of the best cane ever before it went out of business. Loree is always in demand, but SERF…, MCW…, Danzi, and Marca remain a mystery to me. If anyone has tried any of these types of cane, please email me and tell me your opinions! (Of course different years have different results, but usually they have at least similar qualities to them.)

Some quantities have minimal amounts, which I’m very happy to sell off immediately if you are curious about some kinds of cane and would like to try them out, such as:

• .25 lb Danzi 10.5-11 NO YEAR… LISTED…
• .25 lb Glotin/MMI 10-10.5 from 2002
• .25 lb Alliaud/Midwest 10-10.5 from 1997
• .25 lb Marca from 2000

Of course I’ll also be more than delighted to sell:

• .5 lb Rigotti/Charles 10-10.5 from 2000
• Unspecified amounts of the Rigotti and Ghys

If anyone wants this, send me an offer and I’ll be happy to send it out when I arrive in the States.

Cane is waiting for me. I just have to survive one more month with this Ghys and Rigotti. Ugh.

A MAJOR Correction

Thursday July 12 2007

Correction to my blog entry regarding Alfred Genovese. Apparently he his alive and well! I’m very very confused at this moment.

Rigotti Cane, Continued.

Thursday July 12 2007

Well, it is confirmed. I posted a note on the Oboe Bboard asking advice regarding this stinky Rigotti cane, and I got this response.

Rigotti is my favourite cane, used it regularly over the last 15 years.
It doesn’t look that great, other cane is more consistent in colouring, but the sound is warm and crisp (from a good reed!), to my ears.
I usually get best results with a thick gauge.
Be careful not to pick the harder pieces, as Rigotti can be pretty hard.

-Nissen

Nissen is the also the maker of the Nissen Staple, another version of a corkless staple modeled after Alex Lubell’s Superstaple that I would love to try, but they’re a bit expensive (6.90 Euros, approximately $5.00 to refit YOUR… OWN… staple that you send to him). He has a very nice website, well worth looking at. I’m a fan of Chudnow’s E corkless staples, and would love to try out the Nissen staple.

So, he suggested to get a thick gouge, so I went medium, thick, and super thick. My results are turned out less than stellar, but the best result I got was with the medium gouge (.64 down the middle, thinner on the sides). As he mentioned, the tone is certainly crisp, but I don’t find much warmth in it (perhaps its his Nissen Staple I need!) So basically I’m stuck with 3/4 a pound of Rigotti, probably 40 pregouged pieces, and nothing to do with it.

So Nissen, if you’re out there reading this, want to make a trade? The rest of my Rigotti for 15 tubes refitted? I’ll even split, sort, and pregouge some more for you!