Adventures of Cooper and his oboe, Barbara.

It was a good day at the office today. Hrm… rather it was a good day at my dining room table. I followed up with my work as planned, thinning the sides even further on my fixed Graf machine to settle on a “beefy” but workable setting. They produce larger openings, and work very well when the tips are very VERY VERY thin. That means they take longer to make, and require more knife control and careful work. I made 5 of them on the machine, 3 with Bonazza and 2 with RDG and they all took me an average of 30 minutes.

I also tried the other Graf machine which I have been using a lot for a while now, and beefed the setting up .02 mm, and beefed the sides up a bit, which didn’t make a whole huge amount of difference. I made two reeds on that machine which both turned out very well, as expected. Tomorrow, I might push the machine a bit further and thicken the sides further to see how far I can go before I notice significant detriments.

The two machines produce very different kinds of reeds. Most of my reed clients like reeds that require a bit of embouchure gripping, whether they’re aware of it or not. Many oboists don’t realize they bit a certain amount, but rather consider biting the actual usage of the jaw. But biting can be more than just jaw gripping (or “the crocodile bite” according to Tabuteau). Biting can also include “extreme lip compression” or other ways to compress reed openings in order to gain response that is otherwise lacking in the reed, or to cover improper unbalanced vibrations. This was the large problem with Patty Mitchell’s reeds, and once we got them vibrating correctly, she was able to stop “lip compressing” her reeds and open up her embouchure, further gaining flexibility.

My preference are the reeds with the latter Graf machine, simply because the less you compress, the more sound and tone there is. If the reed is correctly made, it will hold its tone together without the usage of unnecessary control with the embouchure. But most people find these kinds of reeds “too small” or have too small of openings because they’re so used to compressing or take too much reed in.

I got a lot of good reeds in my reed case, and they’re all going out shortly.

It’s 12:20 am and I can’t sleep. Why? Because I’ve got REEDS on my mind.

When my gouging machines are off, everything is off. It just messes me up in every way. When they are “on”, I know I can make a great reed in 20 minutes or less. But when they’re off, it drives me nuts, and it takes me twice or three times longer just to get a good reed. And I’m the personality type that won’t stop messing with the machine until I get it right.

Since I’ve received the Opus 1 gouging machine back, I’ve messed with it and messed and messed until now. I’ve now decided that the guide and bed does not allow me to get thin enough sides for what I want. What does this mean? Basically, my sides are too thick when I use my Weber 1-B and 1-C shape, so it will never be my “go-to” machine. I have yet to try it with my RDG 2 shape, but I think the extra width will work out alright, so the machine might produce fine reeds for the RDG 2 shape only.

Meanwhile, I made two reeds on the Graf that Mr. Weber fixed for me. The first one felt really thick on the sides and center, but was great and worked really well at first, but as it began to settle in it started doing undesirable things and I eventually destroyed it. Meanwhile, the second one was after I thinned the sides and I worked and worked and worked and it didn’t mellow out but a bit later, I thinned the corners and thinned the corners and thinned the corners to get a very thin reed that vibrated a lot and worked gloriously! But then part of the side fell off and it started leaking so I destroyed that one too.

Finally there’s my faithful graf that has been working well for quite some time now. However, it’s also the graf that others are complaining about leaks, so I’m thinking I’m going to have to thicken everything. I could just thicken the sides, but currently I love the perfect ratio set up, and would rather just thicken everything (which also thickens the sides proportionately), keep the ratios even, and go from there. I just don’t have the time.

I sat and pregouged 45 more pieces of cane. I have been using RDG Superior cane which I’m very familiar with, but it’s a bit harder and has some “harder” qualities in the sound, so I pregouged Bonazza cane, a much softer cane which I am also very familiar with. (I burned through about 4 pounds of RDG last year while going through 2 kilos of the Bonazza as well.)

Tomorrow I want to find a setting to the fixed Graf that I will really like, will be easy to make reeds for, and will be efficient. Then maybe I’ll move on to my trusty old Graf and thicken everything and give that a rip. Then maybe I’ll try the Opus 1 with an RDG 2 tip.

I’m really taking these reed returns personally. I think I need to get tougher skin. I am just so baffled that these reeds change so dramatically.

Mr. Weber said something while I was down there. He told me that a couple of years ago, he was fed up with reedmaking, and while he was making about 300 reeds a month, he dropped down to subscribers only, which left him with about 120 reeds a month. He told me that he no longer took specified orders. “I make them the way I want to make them, and they have to live with that.” Now granted, he makes great reeds, but that’s a pretty steep ultimatum. I wish I could get to that level of consistency and quality in my reeds.