Medir Reeds anyone?

[JazzDaddy]

Through all the "noise" of misguided info/commercial apps/etc I learn so much & see such interesting info on this forum. Milandro thx for the video.

As "Jazz is all" says, sometimes it's not the return on the money, it's for the pleasure of making your own stuff (like fly fishermen tying their own flies). Good overview of Cabo Cañaveral.

Looking forward to your views of the Medir reeds.

[Jazz Is All]

Well these people are really on the ball. I got a small packet with 2 #3 tenor reeds in the mail today. There was a very nice letter addressed to me with info about their products and the various ways of ordering and paying for them. Very modern, using internet and paypal or credit cards etc. Same day turnaround for small orders too. Wow. They also enclosed a flyer for the Musikmesse in Frankfurt on the 21st to 24th of this month where they will have a stand. If anyone is going they are in Hall 1.1, stand B26 should you be interested in seeing their stuff. I'm not shilling for them btw, just passing on the info for anyone interested in trying new reeds, as I assume they will be giving out samples there too.

Over the next couple of days I'll be breaking in these reeds giving them a few warmup plays to see what they are like. I'm hoping that they'll be to my liking because the price is right and the service is door to door in a jiffy.

[Jazzaferri]

Sounds like really good people to do business with. I look forward to your impressions of them.

[Jazz Is All]

Yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised, especially since they are local but I'd never heard of them nor seen their reeds anywhere here. So I've got my fingers crossed in hopes that they play really well and are consistent from reed to reed. I'm tired of playing Vandoren open-the-blue-baggie-surprise-package roulette. Last one I opened came out with a tiny chip out of the tip and a strand loose on one edge.

[milandro]

a lot of people have never heard of Rigotti or Marca while they use other “ brands” made by these factories

[Jazz Is All]

It's probably a marketing and inventory issue now that I think about it. For all the world-class image it likes to project, Barcelona is still fairly provincial in many ways, and the rest of Cataluña even more so (its whole population is only 6 million). In Barcelona (where half of that population lives) there may be only 6 decent music stores carrying band instruments (usually Jupiter, Keilwerth and Yamaha with a couple having Selmer). Of those only 2, AFAIK, specialize in woodwinds as well as quality woodwinds. My tech's shop, Atelier del Viento (http://www.atelierdelviento.com/mitaller.htm) is the only one I know that also specializes in Vintage saxes and mouthpieces.

So the demand for reeds isn't that enormous to begin with, on top of which most music school and conservatory teachers tell their students to buy Vandoren or Rico reeds. So naturally that is all you find in the ordinary shops. They have no reason to invest in an inventory of Hemke, Alexander, Gonzalez, Rigotti, Legeré etc. because nobody who shops there even knows about them or would buy them. The specialty shops have a larger selection but they too don't carry the less commonly used brands either, for simple economics and because, the Vandoren/Selmer nexus is quite strong, so smaller companies can't compete equally with their marketing program (workshops, demos, expensive advertising, etc.) or the control their jobbers (in Madrid via France) exert over the market.

So I think that, as someone above said, Medir, which has been in business for 90 years, must mostly sell bulk cane and splits to other reed retailers. If that is true, it would be interesting to find out which ones, don't you think?

[milandro]

you mean to find out which reed brand sold at 300% the price that Medir charges on their site, sold in a shop wit a different brandname comes from the same factory? And who would tell you this thing if not medir themselves? (enraging those who buy from them in larger amounts than anyone would), and even if that was the case as with Marca and Rigotti, the owner of that other brand made by medir would say that brand X is made to higher specs and that they add a selective quality control that discards 75% of the reeds bringing the price where it now is.

I think the best thing to do is to evaluate Medir reeds for what they are and draw your conclusions from there, regardless of any other brand that they might be, or not, making.

[Jazz Is All]

Well, I wasn't speculating so much that they actually manufacture the finished reeds for anyone else--I'm not sure who that would be even if they were--but more like they wholesale cane to someone bigger like.....maybe....Oh, you know..

[jicaino]

"Nadie es profeta en su tierra"... good old spanish serves perfectly here

[milandro]

Nemo propheta in patria........is the Original Latin really

Just Got some reeds in the mail too........will be checking them out they look nice, as least as nice as anything else I buy, no obvious chips defects of any type (this is for Jazzaferri!).

The wrapping shows some similarities to other brands but I have no idea if there is any relationship.

[milandro]

Just played both tenor and alto and they are very good reeds indeed, I am impressed!

[Jazz Is All]

I played one of the tenor reeds today. It has a nice tone, which is a great sign. But there is a bit of that aspirated sound around the core tone, like the surface isn't smooth enough. So I think it needs to be broken in more and have the surfaces smoothed a bit. Tomorrow I'll soak and play it again and rub the face on some smooth paper and rub the vamp to seal it too. I'm not going to scrape or sand because it plays straight off up and down the horn. I think it should break in just fine and sound as good as any of the gonzalez and vandoren reeds I have going right now.

[Jazzaferri]

Thanks guys. How does the strength number relate. Are they close to traditional reed strengths?

As soon as I know I am going to order a few boxes and give em a try. Spain needs the help as small as it may be

I have discovered that a very very light going over the surface with my ReedGeek leaves a really nice surface that seems to make a wee difference in sound to my ear. Like the lovely shiny surface I get with my cabinet scrapers when they are sharp. Similar in surface to 5 micron silicon carbide or diamond paper. Which work way better and faster than regular paper for polishing. Puts a mirror finish on steel.

[milandro]

I got some 2,5 (tenor and alto) and they are similar to my Ponzols, difficult to compare to Vadoren these days because Vandoren, to me, vary quite a bit and sometimes you have a soft reed and other times the same strength delivers a lollipop stick.

[Jazzaferri]

Cool I can look that up on my chart. At least have some idea. Thanks muchly amigo.

[Jazz Is All]

I'm sorry I haven't reported back, but I haven't been able to play except once since the other day because my son has been sick and has stayed home from school. I did play the one number 3 reed a second time on Friday, after prepping it a tiny bit more and it has a very nice sound to my ears, although perhaps not as rich and clear as the best of my other going reeds, a Vand Trad 3 that I've had for over a month. That one plays beautifullly now, although it hasn't always, so I figure that is a sign it is soon going to die on me. Best not to get too in love with a reed, because they always up and leave you in the lurch. Anyway, I have a very positive feeling about this Medir reed and think it will break in very well. If the other one they sent me performs similarly and the hardness is equal, I think I'll be buying these reeds from now on, and will also try their 3.5 to see how those play. The Medirs cost half the price of a Trad, and that's mailed right to my house the same day I order them online. This is a win-win situation.

[Jazzaferri]

Thanks Jazz

[Jazz Is All]

Of course YMMV but for me that fact that it played up and down straight off out of the envelope without doing anything other than soaking it first is a good sign. It still needs a bit of break in to make the sound a pit purer, but I have rarely found a reed that played perfectly from day one without doing something or other to it. I like the VD trad sound but they are so unreliable I never know what to expect, and I need to save money too.

To give you something to compare with your setup, I don't know what mpc you play, but mine is an old Brilhart Streamline Ebolin 3* which measures 0.85. That's fairly closed compared to what most people play but I like the sound I get with it so I'm quite happy. I've been using 3s on it with VD, 2.5 Gonzalez and MH La Voz, although I have played some VD 3.5 trads too. So I think I could probably play a 3.5 Medir on it too, and plan to order at least one to try it and see.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[milandro]

just played a bit more. These reeds need soaking , maybe is because of the weather (rather dry in Spain in some areas hasn’t rained for 2 years!) but I started playing with no soaking and I had the same as I had had once when I lived a long time in a completely air conditioned place where the air was dry like anything and the reed sounded like it was dead but only needs soaking and then returns lively.

[Jazz Is All]

Yeah, we've been having a drought here this year as well, and the weather has been wacky too temperaturewise. Reeds are plants and respond to weather conditions, particularly rain and humidity, so it has been terrible here the past month. Every reed I played most of this month was schizoid, one day good or great the very next horrible or wonky as alll get out. I mark my reeds G or VG etc. but it has meant nothing--supposed bad ones playing o.k. and supposed good ones playing badly. That's why I have about 12 reeds in rotation now in various stages of life. I play them until the die and then set them aside in the drawer. Months later they often do a Lazarus and rise from the dead for a day or two. Go figure. Now it is raining and cold so maybe they will normalize a bit.