Preparing New Reeds

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Published on Monday, 18 October 2004 17:00

Written by Simon Cole

So , you have a new box (or two) of reeds and hopefully you still have some old reeds you can play on while the new ones are being broken in. If you play full out on the new reeds right away they will not last very long (one rehearsal maybe).
If you are stuck and have to use them right away at least rotate them as much as possible. Basically the longer you take to break the reed in the lesser the chance of it warping

Once the reed has started to stabilize you can then adjust it without worrying that you will adjust it just so it plays right now only to find the next day that the reed has changed and your adjustment has destroyed it.

Open the box and take however many reeds you want to prepare (I usually take the complete box as I consistently get 2 really great reeds out of a box). Wet the reed and soak it thin end down up to the bark. Avoid dumping the whole reed into the glass of water because you don't want the bark-covered end to get wet and warp. Keep it dry it will help keep the rest of the reed from warping. ( Update lately I have been soaking the whole reed, experiment) Wet it for about 60 sec when it is new.

Take the reed out play it 2 minutes mp in the low register. Then on something really flat, like a piece of glass rub the reed flat on both sides. Rub towards the tip and use a fair bit of pressure. When you are rubbing the cut or tapered side hold the reed so that where you are pushing is supported underneath.

Let it dry for a day. Do the same with all the reeds. Reeds should dry upside down, that is with the flat side facing up. If the reed dries on glass or something flat with the flat side down only the side away from the glass dries and the reed will warp. This is one of the good things about the Rico reed cases( it has grooves so the reed dries on both sides) and that's why I use them.

Next day take the reed and flatten the flat side. Few are comfortable using the knife for this so use 400-600 grit wet and dry sandpaper. When you put the reed on the sandpaper keep the tip of the reed off the paper, it's fragile. Push down as evenly as possible and sand the reed. I do about 20 stokes (one forward one back) and I go in circles while I do it, 10 clockwise 10 counter clockwise. 

Then wet the reed and play it for 3-4 minutes. You can do a little more with it today. At this point I start writing on the reed. One line on the but for Ok 2 lines for good etc..

As I repeat this each day, I start to decide what I will do with the reed, orchestra reeds (harder for our hall) I mark with a black spot, chamber music reeds get a white spot. Rub it flat and let it dry every time..

As the days go by I start making adjustments to the reed. Any reed that is just way too hard I rub evenly all over with the sandpaper. Then I balance the sides' tip and work my way down to the but end.

Somewhere around day 5 I seal the but end of the reed with nail polish. The reeds has water tubes that run its length when the reed starts to seem stable sealing one end helps keep it stable. (This tip is from Maxim the bassoon player).

All this is wasted if you let the reed dry out to a petrified state or shove it in some kind of reed case that doesn't let it dry evenly. (It's very dry here so this is more of an issue.) One must always rotate the reeds, playing a different reed every day, this is very important