Reeds
Bassoon Reeds
Citation: Bassoon Reeds. <http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/music/burnette/Mus215/reedbassoon.htm.>
Article Title: Bassoon Reeds
Author: N/A
Instrument: Bassoon
Magazine or Journal Title: N/A
Summary:
Article Title: Bassoon Reeds
Author: N/A
Instrument: Bassoon
Magazine or Journal Title: N/A
Summary:
- Adjustments
- Squeezing 1st wire from sides or 2nd from top and bottom: if its to open, want a fuller, darker sound, and to raise the pitch slightly
- Squeeze 1st wire from top and bottom and 2nd from sides: to close, for a thinner, reedier sound, and to lower the pitch slightly
- Wires: if you make a mistake you can fix it easily
- Illustrations to demonstrate the adjustments
- Reed too stiff?
- Check opening
- Trim lightly with reed knife
- Diagram to show which places should be shaved first or last
- Always test the reed in between
- Reed too bight?
- Adjust wires
- Trim sides of reed
- Cut tip slightly
- Trim back or reed
- Reed too dark?
- Adjust wires
- Trim with knife
- File or sand lightly over all of reed
- Reed too flat?
- Adjust wires
- Cut tip
- Ream tube of reed so it will go on the bocal
- Narrow the “vee” of the reed
- Reed too sharp?
- Adjust wires
- Check for the amount of cane overall and trim accordingly
- Work for lower pitched “crow”
- Caring for the reeds
- Always keep them soaked before playing
- Keep reeds somewhere safe and dry
- Alternate reeds to lengthen their life span
- Practice trimming and adjusting to produce good results
Teaching: Bassoon Reed Making from Cane to Blank
Citation: Stees, Barrick. Teaching: Bassoon Reed Making from Cane to Blank. 2004
Article Title: Barrick Stees
Author: Teaching: Bassoon Reed Making from Cane to Blank
Instrument: Bassoon
Magazine or Journal Title: N/A
Summary:
Article Title: Barrick Stees
Author: Teaching: Bassoon Reed Making from Cane to Blank
Instrument: Bassoon
Magazine or Journal Title: N/A
Summary:
- Selecting your cane
- Look for grain, choose cane that is as straight as possible
- Lay bark on the table
- Choose cane that is somewhat uniform in color, manila colored
- Hardness: use a gauge
- Use thumb and pointer fingers to twist back and forth
- Thinner at gouge
- Prepare gouge
- Check diameter
- Sandpaper the gouge of the dry piece of cane, wet cane and let it dry
- Soak cane for 24 hours
- Profiling
- Clamp profiler
- Center on barrel, both sides
- Strip off bark, starting in the middle,
- Remove cane from under the blade
- Work gradually to use downward pressure to make adjustments
- Problems
- If blade catches, oil the cutting arm
- Barrel sticks, rotate freely to make the amount of reed your play around equal on both sides
- Cuts through can, STOP
- After Profiling
- Put cane on easel
- Score at center
- Remove from easel and fold over knife blade
- Side need to fit together, not over lap
- Forming the Reed
- Put on easel and score bark
- Mark wire placement
- Fold cane over carefully
- Wrap right side over left
- Pull and twist wires counterclockwise
- Check measurements
- Soak in water
- Let dry for 2 weeks
- Sand the seems
- Forming the reed
- Another way of forming the reed using a different method
Marks’s Reed Tips and Bassoon Advice: Buying a Bassoon Reed?
Citation: Marks’s Reed Tips and Bassoon Advice: Buying a Bassoon Reed?. The Bassoon Brothers, Mar. 26, 2008, < http://www.bassoonbrothers.com/advice.>
Article Title: Mark’s Reed Tips and Bassoon Advice: Buying a Bassoon Reed?
Author: N/A
Instrument: Bassoon
Magazine or Journal Title: N/A
Summary:
Article Title: Mark’s Reed Tips and Bassoon Advice: Buying a Bassoon Reed?
Author: N/A
Instrument: Bassoon
Magazine or Journal Title: N/A
Summary:
- Guide for beginners
- Warning! Bassoon reeds are fragile, frustrating and expensive
- Costs more than playing many other instruments
- Your only as good a bassoonist as your reeds allow you to be
- Music Stores/ Manufacturers of reeds
- La Voz, Jones Double Reeds, Rico Reeds, Emerald Reeds Meason Reeds
- They sell directly to local instrument stores or internet suppliers
- Cost
- As low as $9 and as high as $30
- Local bassoonists who make their own reeds may sell them for cheaper
- Sizes, Shapes, Strengths and Models
- Success depends of finding the right reed for you and your instrument
- Reed may need to overcome the instruments flaws
- The case in many school programs
- Beginner reeds
- Only some reeds that come with a new bassoon are acceptable, some are plastic
- Polymer reeds; not as good as cane reeds but good to get young players going
- Directors sometimes buy and sell students reeds in class; will have a variety of different reeds to give to students
- Store bought reeds
- Large internal throat between wires
- Short life span
- Unstable e (3rd space, bass clef)
- Sometimes flat or pinched sound
- Experimentation to find the right reed
- Common problems
- May not fit far enough onto the bocal: reed reamer
- Leaks out back of the tube when on bocal: maybe crack or out of round
- String binding becomes loose; remove and use Duco cement
- Reed blades slip side
- Wires don’t stay in place
- Tip opening to too big or small: make adjustments by pinching
- Too weak or strong: clip tip or sand to adjust reed
- Buying bassoons
- Don’t go cheap, you get what you pay for
- Consult experts when possible
- Research big names in manufacturing
- Reed care
- Keep them safe: no dropping, squeezing, storing in plastic containers
- Keep clean
- Alternate reeds to keep some in rotation and in working order
- Keep all reeds in one place as to not loose them
- Sources of quality reeds
- Professional reed makers
- 9 different reed shapes to choose from
- Companies that have been producing for many years
- Contact local bassoonist