harder numbered reeds just #1.5 reeds clipped shorter?

[Anonymous]

I read an article on the web somewhere (Santy Runyon maybe?) that claimed all reeds start out as the softest number and then they are just clipped shorter to get the various strengths. This was a really old article and was talking about reed manufacturing in the 40's or 50's (or maybe even earlier) -- so perhaps it isn't true today.

I was just wondering if anyone knows? I usually play on #4 or harder reeds and as they get soft I clip them back but I find I can't clip them very far before the characteristics change and I have to scrape them a bit to get them playing right. So I just always assumed you could only clip any reed a little bit before it stops responding well. But if #1.5 reeds could be clipped to make a 3.5 or a 4 -- I'd buy up some of the cheap boxes of too soft reeds that always seem to be floating around ebay.

[awholley]

What I have read suggests that all the reeds or a particular brand and style will be the same cut, and it's the cane that's harder or softer.

[Sigmund451]

If Im not mistaken its a little of both and neither. Cane is graded for what it will be most appropriate for, then it is cut. However the hardness is determined by the heart, the sides, the vamp as well as the tip. A softer reed will play harder if clipped but it wont be the same in overall structure as an original heavier cut.

[Dr_sax]

I visited a vandoren workshop just a while ago and the salesman showed a presentation of the manufacturing process. I was surprised to hear that all the usual strenghts between 2 to I think 4 are all manufactured after the same metal prototype and then sorted after measuring the strength.

[brassnaked]

I was surprised to hear that all the usual strenghts between 2 to I think 4 are all manufactured after the same metal prototype and then sorted after measuring the strength.

I'd have to agree with Dr. Sax...I too have heard that the "mass-manufacturing" process is so unexact that most reeds are simply made using a metal prototype cam-follower kind of thing and usually fall between a wide range of strengths which are then measured for flex and hardness and subsequently graded by numbers, e.g.: 2, 2-1/2, 3, 3-1/2, 4, etc.

Always & Never the Same