enduro reed?

[qwerty]

i have recntly acquired a pan american tenor. in the accessory compartment, i found a plastic reed with the name "Enduro" embossed on the back. i have never heard of Enduro before...

anybody have information on this reed?? my guess is that it is 30+ years old because the horn hasn't been played in at least that long.

any help here?

steve

[fballatore]

"Arnold Brilhart started his performance career in 1922, with all the great musical groups; the Dorsey’s, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and others. In 1939, he began making mouthpieces such as the white "Tonalin" and plastic "Enduro" reeds. He subsequently worked for Rico in the later years of his life in a creative role until he passed away May 17, 1998, at 93 years of age."

from the Fibracell website - http://www.fibracell.com/history.htm

I also found this:

In his book on Artie Shaw, Vladimir Simosko states that Artie Shaw endorsed
Conrad reeds (cane) in 1939 and switched to "Enduro" reeds (plastic) in
1940. These were produced by Arnold Brilhart. If you search google for
"enduro reeds" you'll find some more info. Among it a special sentence: "In
the days of WWII, French cane was rare because it was needed to hide
soldiers."

[SactoPete]

I was wondering the same thing - I have about a dozen or so of those plastic enduro reeds for Tenor, found in the case of the 30m that I purchased a while back. They're fine to practice with I guess, but the sound just isn't right.

[Ol' Mpc Doc]

"Arnold Brilhart started his performance career in 1922, with all the great musical groups; the Dorsey’s, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and others. In 1939, he began making mouthpieces such as the white "Tonalin" and plastic "Enduro" reeds. He subsequently worked for Rico in the later years of his life in a creative role until he passed away May 17, 1998, at 93 years of age."

from the Fibracell website - http://www.fibracell.com/history.htm

I also found this:

In his book on Artie Shaw, Vladimir Simosko states that Artie Shaw endorsed
Conrad reeds (cane) in 1939 and switched to "Enduro" reeds (plastic) in
1940. These were produced by Arnold Brilhart. If you search google for
"enduro reeds" you'll find some more info. Among it a special sentence: "In
the days of WWII, French cane was rare because it was needed to hide
soldiers."

Ah yes, the "Enduro" reeds from Brilhart. These were "Tonalin" cream-colored ones. There was also an "Enduro Junior" model done in white plastic. I have several examples of both for clarinet and bari sax and did use both models on clarinet during my high-school days back in the immediate post-WWII period. I really can't remember if there was any real difference in response or tone between the two but in retrospect suspect both were probably pretty terrible - or maybe it was just me........