Another Reed Review

From Joshua, via gmail chat (unedited, except for obscenities, hence spelling errors)

me: so…

1:07 PM how were they?

1:09 PM Joshua: omg omg omg

OMG

dude

omg

me: woah

Joshua: you make the best. reeds. f@#&ing. ever.

me: calm down buddy

so you liked them, eh?

Joshua: seriously

they rule

me: i sent you 2 red, 1 green and what was the other

multicolor?

Joshua: purkle

1:10 PM me: purple? I’m assuming you liked the green and purple best?

1:11 PM Joshua: I really love the purple one, I also really love the green one, although I need to play it more to see if I like it more than the purple one. The red ones are also really good, but I’ve been playing the purple one mostly, and ahvent’ really given the red ones their full trial yet (I also have to play a lot of clarinet these days, so I only get about an hour or two a day to play the oboe)

they’re all very, very good, though…the low note response is AMAZING on them

1:12 PM me: cool. tell your friends

Joshua: oh, I am

me: if you order from me, i’ll sell them for $15 a pop, and if you order 10, I’ll give you 2 extras free.

1:13 PM you can split them with your pals

Joshua: ooooh…that’s actually a great deal.

1:14 PM me: and if you send the staples back, i’ll take off another $2 for each staple

you can send them the slow cheap way.

Joshua: nifty coolbeans!! :)

I like the staples

they’re a little tight on my oboe, but that’s what cork grease is for :)

me: which ones did i send you? the sierra?

1:15 PM Joshua: yes

me: i take a nail file and sand them a bit. i don’t like cork grease

messy

Joshua: it is indeed

but I wipe them off before I put them away

1:16 PM me: cool. anyways, glad you like them

i guess you prolly like the beefy ones

the purple one is bigger than the green one, right?

Joshua: i do…although I get very similar sounds from all of them

yes, slightly

1:17 PM me: if it’s too big, you can scrape the sides of the heart to lessen the opening

yeah, consistency is good :P

Joshua: you’re quite good at this whole reed thing :-P

me: i spend too much time

1:18 PM on reeds. my wife can attest to that.

Joshua: lol

A Review of my reeds

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

Welcome to my all-oboe blog!

Welcome to my all-oboe blog! After blogging on xanga for many years, I’ve been inspired by my friend Patty Mitchell’s all-oboe blog oboeinsight to begin writing my own. So, feel free to take a look at some previous oboe posts on my xanga blog, and keep your eye out on this blog, because I’ll begin blogging a lot more here.