A Review of my reeds
Tuesday July 03 2007
So I’m beginning to get into the reed business a little bit. I figure since I’ll be a poor, starving grad student, I might as well try out the market and see some results. I’ve recently sent some reeds to 3 people; professional oboist/english hornist Patty Mitchell, a late-blooming beginning oboist referred to as “Dutchy” from the oboe bboard, and another professional/recent Juilliard grad named Joshua.
From Dutchy
Well, for “good enough for rehearsal” reeds as you said in your note,
they’re pretty good. They were kind of hard at first, but as they’re
getting broken in they’re working out okay.
Meg Cassell’s reeds (which are the closest to yours I’ve encountered in
the market so far) are also fairly stiff at first and take some
breaking in, so that’s no biggie.
Reed #1 I managed to bash on my teeth right away in my excitement
(“Oooh, new reeds!”—“dang”), so it’s been retired to the other side
of the reed box, although I may tinker with it a bit to see if I can
get it working.
Reed #2 seems to be just a tad flat on the high G and up for me; it’s
probably that my embouchure isn’t up to the challenge. It’s still
perfectly playable by itself, just not with a playalong CD.
Reed #3 has a lot of airflow through the sides, to the extent that I
find myself a teensy bit distracted by the wind in the branches, so to
speak, but it plays okay, it’s just kinda breezy.
But the other three are fine. I can’t really tell the difference
between the blue thread and the green thread, they all seem “narrow” to
me, especially compared with the Fox Artist reeds I also use, which are
distinctly short ‘n’ squatty in comparison, with no huge windows.
I did find that all of them benefited from using an emery board to sand
down the tips just a tad, just removing a few molecules of cellulose
from the very edge. I like a bit more response from a thinner tip, it
helps me to avoid my patented “banzai!” too-explosive attack.
Obviously I made the reeds to tailor the player. I knew Dutchy preferred softer reeds, and Joshua preferred wider heavier reeds. We’ll see what Patty has to say about the reeds and cane!
So, if you’re interested in buying reeds from me in the future, I’ll be willing to send you a couple FREE… samples (at my expense!), as long as you send me the tubes back (but seriously, don’t ask me for samples if you’re really not interested in buying my reeds). I’m hoping to sell reeds for $15 each (minimum 3?), and unshaped cane for $1.50 each, plus shipping
Picture of some of my reeds, Using Weber 1-B, Weber 1-C, and RDG… 2
