Barbara has her groove back!
Friday July 13 2007
For the past two weeks, I’ve been working with no Alliaud, RDG… R/GO Bargain Basement, or Bonazza cane, my three staple sources. I’ve been documenting my struggles with Ghys and Rigotti, and have been frustrated playing reeds that are not up to my standard of tone and such. The ghys have been usable, but nothing great while the Rigotti has been a complete disaster.
I’ve been starting to worry.
“Am I in an oboe reed slump?”
“Maybe my gouging machines are off!”
“Is the weather changing?”
Well, I said, “ENOUGH…!” and finally reached for my prized Grimaud cane (prized because 1. it’s my favorite cane, and 2. It’s expensive.) I scraped up a couple reeds with the Grimaud, and Voila! There’s that dark, round, Klein-like tone that I love making. It wasn’t me, it was the silly cane!
So, my advice for all you gouging-machine-tinkerers-and-messer-uppers: When making adjustments, always use cane that you’re very familiar with. And always keep some of your favorite cane available to test if its the gouge that’s messed up, or just you.
cjwrightoboe
Jul 13, 2007
I guess you like Danzi? Its some of that cane I haven’t tried that is waiting there.
Meanwhile, I don’t think I concentrate more on the Grimaud cane. Making reeds comes very fast, zen-like, and I don’t really sit there and think about it much. But I did listen to Holliger’s Vivaldi Concertos while I was making the super reed, and that CD is so much fun to listen to, it just makes you happy. Maybe that had something to do with it. 
I like working with different kinds of cane because it challenges me to learn more about how to scrape different kinds of reeds, and learn more about how to adjust my setup (gouge, shape, expectations) differently. I also think it keeps you a more flexible player, as well as reedmaker. Someday when I’m teaching 20 different students at some university with 20 different kinds of cane, I’ll have to evaluate each case and adjust differently.
bautbois
Jul 13, 2007
I like Danzi, but I can’t say I’ve tried a million different kinds of cane…the Danzi is fibrous so you have to be careful not to develop notches/nicks on it..recently i’ve been using reed rush to refine my reeds in the adjustment phase..i find it gives a better result than using a vertical razorknife back/forth sanding action. Are you familiar with Cheryl Wefler’s oboe reed adjustment guide? It’s very densely written, in my opinion, but it’s one of the few booklets that’s all about reed refinement..she is very big on the idea of “sculpting” a reed’s surface, like an artist working from a big cubic rock to bring out a form, and believes it’s very important to achieve a smooth unbutchered reed surface because she thinks the vibrations travel through the surface of the reed better…i’ve also used Ghys which i don’t like as much…i want to believe that i can make a good reed from any shape (though not too narrow), gouge, cane and tube, but this is my rationalized concession to the reality of inconsistent cane-stocks! You’ve made orders of magnitude more reeds than I have, so it’s probably a more mechanical exercise for you…i still have to think quite a bit about what i’m doing while i’m doing it, or i screw up!
Jul 13, 2007
Cooper,
IMHO even if the Grimaud is 50% more expensive thant he other cane, if you’re getting great reeds from it, it’ll end up being cheaper on a total cost basis - you’ll make fewer reeds to get the good ones,and that’s not even factoring in the effect on your playing satisfaction index (PSI)! I use Danzi cane - every now and then i get a reed that is on a whole different level that can’t be explained by the tube, the tying, the scraping, the gouge, etc. It’s clearly the particular piece of cane. I would pay 3x to get nothing but pieces of cane like that. Hmmm, maybe time to try some of the Grimaud! The other thing is, I bet you concentrate more on what you’re working with expensive cane!
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