Nissen Tubes

A while back ago I wrote a note regarding Nissen’s tubes. Well, he wrote me and offered me two FREE tubes. I thought it was a very generous offer, and at the time, it just so happened that one of my good friends was in Denmark, his home country, so my friend was able to make payment to him and I sent him 15 tubes (10 weber tubes, 5 Chudnow CA nickel silver staples). So I got 15 converted tubes for the price of 13.

Well they arrived today, and first of all, they just look AWESOME. I tied two of them up, scraped the tip and clipped. I’m going to leave them tonight to let them dry and scrape some more tomorrow.  Stay tuned for a full report.

Reeds for Mr. Georgia

So I just completed two reeds ordered by a man from Georgia. It was an interesting task, namely because his set-up and background sounds so different from mine. But with a bit of experience and creativity, I think I’ve made some reeds he’ll be happy with. His email to me explained that he had previously been ordering reeds from Back Bay Reeds and seems to be curious about my reeds after his friend Josh recommended me.

He described himself as:

• Mack School (studied at FSU with Eric Ohlsson)
• A Freelancer (rather successful at that from his resume)
• “HATES MAKING REEDS”
• Have an audition coming up and will pay “top dollar” (well, I don’t ask for top dollar!)
• Has a big audition for 2nd oboe/EH coming up
• Playing on a fairly new standard bore Loree Royal
• “I do not do well with long tips. I do not have enough lips to muffle a long tip. My partner says that I have South Carolina lips: tiny little thin anglo lips.”

Upon my request for the kind of reeds he is looking for, he further mentioned:

• Likes dark, warm sounding reeds (who doesn’t?! Have you ever heard of someone who likes bright, cold sounding reeds?)
• Pitch on Royal a bit low so reeds “MUST crow a good C or a sharp C”
• Previous reeds from BBReeds were made on a Gilbert 1
• Other reeds from BBReeds were made on Robinson/Barr tip, but “too bright”
• Likes thinner shaped reeds
• Have also used Jeanne, Caleb, Samson and Mack +
• Likes medium to small openings

Now, what does all this information mean to I, the reedmaker?

• Since he describes himself as a “Mack school” player it makes me think that perhaps he takes more reed in which is exposed his mouth. He also might bite a little/use a lot of lip pressure to compress the opening to kill extra vibrations from the extra amount of tip exposed in his mouth.
• “HATES MAKING REEDS” makes me think he might be a long-term customer!
• Since his audition is 2nd oboe/EH, he needs an even MORE perfect reed than a 1st oboe player would. He needs a reed that plays from super high Gs clear down to Bb with perfect response, stability, and full roundness.
• Since he plays on a fairly new standard Royal, I can know that our instruments are at least a bit alike since mine is a 5 year old Royal. I can also know that there is a bit more cover than I would get from a regular Loree. But I’m not taking comfort in that.
• Thin lips is a toughy! This goes along with the Mack school idea. Since he takes more reed in his mouth, AND he has thinner lips, that means he does not have as much natural cushion/cover for the reed. Therefore, I have to get the tip slope exactly perfect. No chirps or hint of chirps. No buzz. 100% pure round tone.
• The order is for a solid C or even sharp C. This was a bit tough for me as well, since I like a low C crow for flexibility, but I managed to pull all the C’s up to pitch.
• I thought it was very interesting that he found the Robinson/Barr reeds a bit bright. Robinson Barr is a very wide shape (made by Joe Robinson) and should technically be sounding rather dark. Since he described them as bright, my guess was either the gouge was too light in the middle or sides for such a wide shape (thus throwing off ratios) or that the opening or reed might be too big, forcing him to bite a bit more thus accenting the upper partials. Thus since he liked thinner shaped reeds and smaller openings, I thought maybe he likes more stable reeds (reeds that play perfect octave Cs) and openings that he doesn’t need to bite. But this would make me rethink just how “Mackish” he might be.

So, as you can see, there’s a LOT to think about when someone gives you an order for oboe reeds.

So, I made two great reeds for him. The first was on a Weber 1-B shape which has projection, stability, and beautiful ring in it. The only concern was I figured since he might take more reed in, and less cushion, maybe it will sound too bright for him. As a precaution, I clipped it one extra time (one more than I would like it). I figured for him it’s probably better to err on the “covered but slightly less responsive” side rather than the ‘too bright but responsive enough” side. The second reed was made on a Weber 1-C shape. Actually, I made 2 Weber 1-C reeds, but one of them I didn’t like how it turned out so I made another. It’s VERY dark. In fact, it was far too dark and covered for me, since I like a bit of “ring” in the sound, but I figured it’ll be just fine for him.

I also am sending him the two reeds I wrote my comparison on the other day that I made on the RDG 2 shape. I think he might like my wider shaped reeds as well. The deal is simple: if he doesn’t, he can just send them back, but if he does, he buys them at a discounted price of $12 each. This being his first order, I want to make sure he finds reeds that are just right for him, so I wanted to make sure he at least tried the wider reeds.

Below: The Weber 1-B reed on the left, and the Weber 1-C reed on the right. Both made from Grimaud cane.

Note: An email just received says he doesn’t take much reed in at all, plays on the very tip, and puckers his lip for his embouchure. This doesn’t sound Mackish?!? Perhaps he’ll like the Weber 1-B shape reed the best!

Googling the finalists of the IDRS Gillet Competition this past year.

1st prize winner Jeffrey Stephenson’s website here - Also has some good tips for kids and parents trying starting on the oboe here.

Information about Andrea Overturf, the 2nd place winner here. Here myspace website has more clips of her here.

Seems like most of the info on Pierre-Antoine Escoffier, is in a different language.

And if you read German, you can read about Petar Hristov here.

And finally, Bethany Slater has a short bio here.

It’s interesting to note that Andrea Overturf, Bethany Slater and Jeffrey Stephenson were all Killmer students at Eastman, and seem to have been there all at the same time for at least 2003-2004. Wow, what a studio class!

Circular Breathing

Stumbled on this resource for circular breathing written by Dr. Terry Ewell. The guy is quite well known in the double reed world, and I believe was a president (or vice president) at one time of the IDRS.

There’s a fun youtube clip of him when he was in the Seattle Youth Phil soloing. He played bumblebee for an encore!

Gouging Machine for Sale on IDRS

I saw this gouging machine, an Opus 1 for listed $580. I think that’s about $400 below new price. My Opus 1 is very easy to manage and adjust. He also makes a Fillotine, the pregouger/guillotine which saves you money too. And all of the upgrades that he makes to his machines, he offers FREE to people who bought his machine previously. You just have to pay postage. (Mine is currently being updated to his newest specs as we speak!)

So, this EH I’m interested in…

Certainly sounds interesting. Mr. Weber received it, and had to do some revamping on the instrument since it had gone all out of whack since the last time he tried it. While fixing it, the key even came off the hinge tubing! Imagine that? He said he soldered it back and it is stronger than ever now, but I was certainly surprised to hear that bit of information. He said it is a fine instrument, with this bit of warning.

 All aspects of the EH are really fine, as you are expecting.  However, any oboe or EH of an older vintage will show its age via metal fatigue–thus the EH being returned with keys & rods not where I had them before.  You, as an experienced player, will find no problem with this normal condition.

After my confusion about a “key breaking off”, Mr. Weber clarified.

No, the key did not break off.  When bending long keys, like the EH has several of, esp.  RH G#, that puts lots of pressure on the solder joint.  The joint itself let loose, where the touch piece was soldered onto the hinge tubing.  Not unusual, just a nuisance.  Even nearly new instruments can do this, just not often Loree’s.  Early Lorees, B series, were hand made.  Today, Alain de Gourdon has bought much new equipment, and he is thriving in the digital milling machine era.  His key mechanics are topped by none.  Earlier, in his father’s day, all was hand made, and even hand made by artists annd experts, sometimes the solder joints did not hold up forever.  We expect more recently.  Don’t worry about this solder joint.  However, any older horn will have metal fatigue and have had lots of stress from loving playing.

Quite an interesting bit of information. I didn’t know this about older horns.

Meanwhile, I will wait a month until I get to AZ to try out this horn. I’m very excited about the possibility of it being “the one”, as well as learning how to make shaper tips (I will copy Mr. Weber’s copy of Mr. Rosenblatt’s EH tip) and getting my Graf #2 fixed up.

Very interesting Clarinet reed

I found this Clarinet reed on my friend’s website. It’s interesting to see how they mark the areas, and how they mark how different locations effect different areas in a clarinet’s range. I think in many ways, the picture has a lot of similarities to an oboe reed. Although I can’t prove it, I do believe the “upper range” and “middle range” areas marked on the clarinet reed have relatively the same location on a blade of an oboe reed.

The historic reed continued.

I played the first two moments of the Bach G minor partita memorized last night on a recital. The good news was I had no memory slips, and played it pretty smoothly. The downside was that I practiced pretty hard that morning and afternoon and thought I had given myself enough time in between, but I didn’t. My mouth got pretty tired, and I missed some low note attacks. Bummer. but the historic reed held up well, and played beautifully with great tone and response. It also had a great range of dynamic range.

I’ll play Ich Habe Genug twice next week, once in the morning service and once in the afternoon service. I’m looking forward to using the special reed to see how things go.

I have a new order for reeds from a man in Georgia! The problem is, all of my individual reed cases (the plastic clear ones) are in a box, on a boat, on the way to the states. So I need to figure out a safe way to ship them without getting damaged.

A reader’s question: Tying problems

Hey - another question for you. I received this new
batch of gouged&shaped cane, and out of 7 tied on, 3
leak terribly near the throat (right above the string
end).

I’ve move my tie-on point down to 72, from 73.5 with
other cane I’d been using, because its obvious the
sides don’t close if I tie on longer.

I’m soaking the cane until it sinks (about 1/2 hour).
If I move the tie-on point any further down, the sides
start to open back up again, so I think this 72ish
range is the sweet spot. If I pull any harder on the
string, it breaks. Any suggestions? Just for the
heck of it, I’m going to try wax on my string on the
next reed I tie.

Most certainly use wax! It allows a tighter tie, and also gives some sealing properties to cane down by the string.

That said. do you overlap your cane when you tie it? I always tie with the idea that I’ll slightly overlap my reeds with the top blade slightly to the right (if the tip is facing upwards).

The person you buy cane from might have a faulty tip as well. I used to own a RDG -1N that wouldn’t seal for the life of me. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t get it to seal. Meanwhile, my former teacher, Mr. Stolper used to always tie with the RDG -1N and I never had any problems with his tip. The two tips were just slightly different.

Finally, what staples are you using? Some staples have lower tying points (i.e. wide staples like the Chudnow) with tips that have a thinner throat area. Don’t be afraid to tie shorter (although I probably wouldn’t want to tie below 72). I think you’re right in simply trying to figure out what the longest length of the reed can be tied while still sealing.

By the way. When I move back to the States, I’ll be selling gouged cane and gouged/shaped/folded cane for about $1.75 a gouged piece, $2.15 per shaped piece, and I’ll guarantee consistency! I have a paypal account, so I think people could easily send me funds via paypal rather than hassle with a check.

More on Reed Comparison.

As I mentioned, all of these reeds have slightly different qualities. The wide Grimaud is a very warm, round mellow sounding reed but with less core to it. The Rigotti reed has less lower partials, but more ring and core in the sound. The “historic moment reed” has everything!

When I played all of the reeds for my wife, she immediately picked out the “historic moment reed” as being the best one. When I asked why, she said “It sounds rounder and fuller.” I showed her the three reeds and told her to choose which reed she thought was the winner. She had no idea. Looks can certainly be deceiving!

I will be playing at church in a week. It’ll be video taped (as it always is) and I know the video compresses and eliminates the lower partials in my sound, but you’ll be able to get a sense of what the “historic moment” reed sounds like, assuming the weather doesn’t change rendering it useless.