Reeds - storing them in a cigar humidifier?

[massaro]

Does it make sense to store opened and un-opened packages of reeds in a cigar humidifier?...without the cigars...lol. I see products on the market that stores:? 4 reeds with a miniature humidifier...why not all in a cedar cigar humidifier?

If so, what's the right humidity level?

Or, is this stupid question?

[Saxland]

Nope not a stupid question. I find that reeds that are opened, unused, and stored for a year, play better because they have time to go through the different seasons, thus expanding and contracting. It seems to make they last longer.

Read this thread:

http://www.saxontheweb.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=7172&highlight=saxland+reeds

[Hurling Frootmig]

A cigar humidor is too humid for reeds. They will grow all sort of bad things in an extremely humid environment. Reeds work best around 50% humidity and 70 degrees. A cheap solution I use is a medium size zip top freezer bag with a pen sized humidistat (a device that shows temperature and humidity) and a fair amount of reeds (between a dozen and two dozen). I basically found a number of reeds that works well with how much I play and everything is pretty constant.

Another option is to buy the reed humidor from Vandoren.

[Pete Thomas]

If you live in a very dry climate, it makes sense to use something that slows down the drying out process - drying too quickly causes warping, which (although temporary) could be causing the reed to have a shorter life. I have no scientific evidence to back this up.

However i would not use a cigar humidifier - you don't want to keep them humid, they'll ghrow things. The vandoren type case can be useful, but only if you live in a dry place, otherwise they can cause the reeds to be wet for too long ond go moldy

[Grumps]

Plus, you might smoke one by accident...

[saintsday]

Thanks, Grumps.