Advice on reed preparing wanted

[baga]

I think I have come to a point where I feel working on reeds might improve my overall playing.
In the past - I thought a proper mouthpiece is crucial, then I found one that I felt quite comfortable with, and then I realized I was a lousy *** in playing and 'it was not the mouthpiece'.

But times've changed, so a question to the pros:

1) is scrubbing a reed lowering its overall longevity? therefore it boils down to 'better do reeds everytime' or 'better find one that is good and don't scrub unless you have to'?
2) reeds change through time. One that is good now, can be lousy in a few days. Any thoughts on this -- how to prepare a reed knowing that it will be different when you REALLY start to blow on that reed. You tend to over-emphasize, or 'less is better'?

Why the questions?

I have found a reed size that I feel I am comfortable, although it tends to be a bit too hard usually (Alexander 3 on Link 6*). But a tiny bit. Harder reeds cause me to go unresponsive, and precision starts to deteriorate. Softer reeds lack good staccato response.
What I need is to scrub those reeds a bit towards the one I have found among them which has very good response, and kicks on staccato. This serves me as a model, and i have 3 boxes waiting there to be opened.
What I'd need is that I'd like to scrub them a bit. Answers to the above questions might help me omit the most basic errors.

Any help?

[Michael Ward]

Hello Baga,
I'm not really one for adjusting reeds but many players I know do it (a lot ) but what I do do is break them in slowly. In a box of reeds assuming you've settled on a strength thats right for you and your set up is good there will be a couple of perfect ones , a few good ones , a couple of too soft , too hard ,and one unplayable. But if you break them in slowly, you know soak them , seal them ,play them for short periods and rotate them, they come together. Also the reed you've been favouring to practice might be too soft in a live situation say with a loud electric rhythm section so you have harder ones ready to go in your reedcase. I do the pop test sometimes to make sure I've got a seal.
I think reeds generally get a bad deal blamewise. 3 DC sounds about right for Link 6*.The only real answer is get some synthetics
which never vary . Cheers

[baga]

Aye, I know what you mean.

I do that right now - soak, rotate, seal, etc. But to be honest, this approach boils down to 'don't scrub reeds unless you have to, and choose a proper for a specific occasion'. Which is fine with me, coz that's what I was doing so far.

What I meant to say, is that I've come to a point, where I feel I CAN do better. And I thought maybe there are some basic, rarely spoken rules regarding reeds, which are so obvious that they rarely get mentioned since they are so obvious.

There are probably folks here who play a sax for more than 10 years, and play for 20 or so, and I guess those sort of things become obvious after time.

[Michael Ward]

I think with tweaking reeds everyone seems to have there own little system or sometimes like me doesn't. The new Vandoren Reed adjuster kit is great for people who like to adjust reeds especially flattening the table also there's a very good chapter on reed adjustment in Larry Teal's book , "Art of saxophone playing ". I use Alexander reeds now like yourself and compared to a lot of reeds I've tried they are excellent.Big sound, more consistant.I know what you mean about wanting more but I definitely get it from Alexander Superial.
Also since I switched to handmade pieces, Lamberson and RPC in my case I get a lot more of everything including sound out of my horns. I've been very frustrated in the past by some pieces. It's a great feeling when everything comes together horn and set up and very frustrating when you know there's more and you can't get at it . Good Luck

[Tim Price]

Lots of info on reeds prep/adjust. in the air.

I have put together a few things that might be helpful on my website "lessons" page.
http://www.timpricejazz.com/lessons/dealingwreeds.html

I've worked on single reeds with Kal Opperman. I learn something everyday I touch a reed. Its a hands on daily learning thing.

Maybe my "dealing with reeds" might help. I hope so.
Good luck.

P/s Kal Opperman HAS a great book out on reeds- search Amaszon for it. Its easy to use.

[baga]

Michael, Larry Teal's book is always helpful. And yes, Alexanders are the nicest reeds I've played so far. I've never played a Lamberson, although I would like to, but hauling them here would be buying a cat in a bag, heh heh. When I get the dough to move to Netherlands I'll see a shop there, where they take care of folks like me. Thanks for the tips :)

Tim, many thanks for the tips. The link is wonderful, and I am at the state of internalization. :D
And...last but not least - your lessons are a joy :)
Ear-openers and finger-stretchers. That's how it should be.

[sw3119]

http://www.dornpub.com/SaxjPDF/reed1.pdf

http://www.dornpub.com/SaxjPDF/reed2.pdf

These two links are to articals in the Saxophone Journal about reed working.

[baga]

All right, a couple of notes.
I had this one reed which played nice as a model (but it starts to go weak .. so it will fly to the trash can in a day or two). So when reed-making, I was switching a bit between the model and the one prepared.

I modified two reeds. I used the 'less is better' approach, and following Tim's hint - did it near the end of a practice session. That is a very good hint. The other way round is a bad idea, since it is harder to know what is 'you' and what is 'the reed'.
I also played 3 reeds yesterday when practicing, and that is also a very fine idea. I like it very much. Those two ideas will become norm now, I guess.

One of the reeds started to squeek,probably due to a bad seal. Pesky animal! But the other plays nicely, it is a bit tougher than the model, and a bit more stuffy, but we'll see it today and wonder if yesterday's work was beneficial to it or not.

I decided to write about it, since I think spreading good hints is good. 8)
So if anyone wonders if the links above should be visited, I'd say - yes, you should visit it.

P.S. sw3119, thanks for the links. :) I've read those papers before, but it is always nice to see them pop before you once again.