Reed changes

Wednesday December 26 2007

Reed orders have slowed down recently, which is really too bad because I’m now making some of the best reeds of my life. This vacation has taken me on a mission to give me more cover, more warmth in the tone, and more stability in my low notes. I messed with everything; shaper tips, gouge stuff, and I even mixed up my staples a bit. My biggest changes were in my scrape of course, and I’ve worked long and hard to try to draw out these in a diagram.

The first picture on the left is the “before” and on the right is the “after”. As you can tell, I’m leaving more in the middle of my tip, and just leaving the tip thicker in general. The problem I was having was in doing so, my reeds were still quite “tippy” sounding, so I had to shorten my tips to raise pitch and to have the reed vibrate purportionately. The results have turned out great, and I’m getting great feedback from some reed clients who have recently ordered from me, saying nothing but positive things.

I’ve also started approaching my scrape a bit differently. Previously, I would scrape the heck out of the heart and then fine tune the tip to build in the proper resistance and balance. But I’ve been working a bit slower now, and leaving the heart thicker in general until the very end, and then start taking little by little out of the heart until my reed is perfectly balanced. It’s giving me a bit more to blow against, and more stability as well. I couldn’t be happier with the changes.

I’m still working on my embouchure shift, but all is going well. It just takes patience and time.

EH stuff, practicing.

Sunday December 23 2007

I’m enjoying my vacation very much as I practice up my major thirds clear up to high G and back down. It’s something I just never really spend a lot of time sorting out and making sure they’re perfectly even, but I’m enjoying the challenge a lot. It’s forced me to become a lot more comfortable with the right hand Ab key as I go from C×Short E×D×Short F×G×Short E×Short F×D and back down.

Some good news is that I’m getting an EH gouging machine soon! I just need to send the check away and I’ll receive an old Reynolds EH gouging machine that I can fix up and begin using. I’m also getting a Graf guillotine with that order. A man posted a Graf planing board/planer on the IDRS… forum and I responded to that, so I will also receive that soon as well. So I’ll have the Gouger, planing board/planer, and the guillotine.

I also purchased an old Loree EH from Peter Hurd back in September. The problem with it was it didn’t have the C# articulation key, Left hand F, and had a funky octave system that was kind of a cross between an automatic and a semiautomatic. So I sent it to Marvin Kranz in St. Louis to do a bunch of keywork on it. He’s adding the C# articulation key, changing the octave system over to a regular semi-automatic octave system, and adding an adjustment screw on the end of the F#-G# bridge. The horn interestingly has a left hand C#, and he said he couldn’t fit on a left hand F without removing the C#. Mr. Hiniker likes left hand C#s on his horns, and if it really becomes an issue to me, maybe I’ll take the horn over to him and see if he could make me a special key for a left hand F. The whole process is very time-consuming, and I’ve been waiting for quite a while, but I really hope it turns out to be the horn I think it will be. It had a very special feel to it before I sent it off. The upper register really sat up well and had excellant projection. Currently the project stands at about $4200 total.

The problem is Hannah wrote me recently to tell me she had a new BC Loree EH, which was spectacular. So she’s sending that up my way after Christmas. Which means I might need to sell the other EH to purchase the BC if it’s better. Decisions decisions decisions.

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Vacation events

Friday December 21 2007

This vacation has been one of the most productive vacations in a long time. It’s finally given me some time to:

• Redesign my reeds to add a bit more cover
• Adjust my embouchure to add more cover and perk up my high notes
• Decompress, and not have to force the sound
• Work on fundamentals, like scales and 3rds
• Reapproach the Strauss slowly, and clean up some stuff.

The work is paying off. Yesterday I played a small gig with Helena who being a critic of my sound, even noticed the difference and gave me positive feedback.

The other day I drove up to Portland to take a lesson with Karen Wagner, 2nd oboe of the Oregon Symphony. I’ve heard some great things about her from different people, and she was friends with one of my previous teachers, Larry Brezicka, who spoke very highly of her. She gave me some good tips and helped point out some ways I was cheating; not vibrating certain notes; short-changing the rhythm in places; giving up on some eighth notes rather than vibrating all of the way through. It was a good lesson, and has given me some good things to work on as I ponder the piece. I’m hoping to get up and get some of Martin Hebert‘s time as well.

New Year’s Eve/Day plans include going up to Bellingham to spend a few days with Peter Hurd and his wife. New Year’s Morning we’ll be going to Lynnwood (North of Seattle) to catch the Met broadcast of Hansel and Gretel, also being shown in 600 other theaters around the world. Should be a great time.

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FOR SALE: GRAF clone gouger (Barr machine)

Thursday December 20 2007

I’m selling my Barr machine, which is a dual radius gouge. It’s all brass, with tight bearings, and a great curve on it currently. It’s exactly like a Graf machine, except it doesn’t have the eccentric bearing inside the carriage. Asking $450.

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Sweeney Todd

Thursday December 13 2007

It’s been 2 days since my friend threw his “The REAL… Sweeney Todd” party where he invited us over to watch Angela Lansbury and George Hearn. I haven’t seen Sondheim before, and didn’t know anything about the story of Sweeney Todd, but the musical certainly disturbed me! And while those around me cheered and laughed and had a gay ole’ time, I was in emotional distress wondering who was a bit off their rocker, them or me!

I told my friend afterward. It’s the kind of musical that I’m sure if I watched again two or three times, I’d appreciate it for it’s musical, structural, and compositional genius. But then again— I’m not sure I ever want to watch it— EVER…. I found it very disturbing.

Not sure if I want to really watch the Big Screen version, although I can’t imagine them making it as disturbing as the original musical. (The original has a rape and a masturbation scene for chrissake!)