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Medir Reeds anyone?

15K views 45 replies 8 participants last post by  The Dude 
#1 ·
I have seen these reeds on sale in the Netherlands but I know nothing about them
there is a web site
http://www.medir.cat/vella/angles/tot.htm
the company appears to be located in in Girona, Spain but the website doesn't really specify where the factory is.
Does anyone know about them?
 
#28 ·
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..
 
#30 ·
Nemo propheta in patria........is the Original Latin really :bluewink:

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.
 
#32 ·
I played one of the tenor reeds today. :thumbrig: 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.
 
#33 ·
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.
 
#34 ·
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.
 
#36 ·
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.
 
#38 ·
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.
 
#39 ·
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.
 
#40 ·
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.
 
#43 ·
Glad to hear your news Milandro. I have so many tenor reeds in rotation that although I tried one of the ones Medir sent me back when I got it I hadn't played it until yesterday. It played as easily as it did then, but still had what I would describe as a kind of aspirated fuzzy sound around the core tone, keeping it from singing pure and clear like a reed should. Not exactly a buzz, but a light whisper. After soaking it some more I ran the edges lightly over some very fine wet-dry sandpaper to remove any burrs and lightly sanded the table side of the reed to smooth it more. This eliminated that sound and it played quite nicely.

However, after about 2 hours of playing it seemed to be crapping out a bit. Adjusting it and the lig on the mouthpiece as well as taking in more mpc cured the problem. I played for 3 hours and so am quite happy with this reed. It compares very favorably with the Vandoren and Gonzalez reeds I have settled on in the past 2 years. When I need to start a new reed, I'll try the second one they sent and see how that works.

I wonder how you find the hardness of your medirs compared to what you normally play. Softer, harder or the same? This is a tenor 3 and I feel, if this is a true indicator of that strength, that it is a bit softer than the Vandoren trad 3s I play. I usually have to sand the trad 3.5s a bit to open them up for me, but I think that a 3.5 Medir would probably not requre much to make it sing, and would be better on my mpc for voicing the higher notes.

When the 10 or 12 reeds I have in rotation finally die (I play them til they fall apart if I can) I am going to switch to Medirs for sure. Easy to get and far cheaper (right now anyway, so mum's the word).:bluewink:
 
#44 ·
Nice to hear that the first reed has worked for you. I wasn’t very lucky with my tenor reeds. I too had the reeds failing on me after few days. But the alto are still going very strong ! The soprano came later and they sent two different hardness 2 and 2,5 and the 2 works perfect very similar to the Marca Jazz that I used before and dot dissimilar to the Vandoren. The alto are 2,5 and are fine with me. The tenor were nice too, also 2,5.

I like the sound of these reeds. As I said I will order soprano first and when I need the other ones I will surely order a box of each to start.
 
#45 ·
Nice to hear that the first reed has worked for you. I wasn't very lucky with my tenor reeds. I too had the reeds failing on me after few days.
Well, I've only played it three times, so it remains to be seen how well it holds up. I have some reeds that I've played for months, in rotation of course, that still sound good. I even tried that thing I talked about not wanting to do (on that reed pred thread) and sanded and shaped the tip of a reed that had a ragged edge. I figured if it was already lousy, what difference would it make trying to clean it up. I soaked it throughly and then lightly sanded off the ragged fibers as much as I could with very fine wet/dry paper. Even though I couldn't get rid of all the little fibers that were sticking out, I got the shape right and it didn't seem to matter. Wonder of wonders it is now playable, with a really nice mellow subtone sound to it all by itself. Great for playing ballads late in the day when I don't want to bother the neighbors. I'm not going to throw out reeds anymore unless they are split or actually chipped at the tip.
 
#46 ·
I'm well familiar with Medir from buying cane from them to make double reeds, for the Irish bagpipes in my case. In case you're not familiar with double reeds, it's a bit like having to make the reed, plus the mouthpiece, and the ligature...rather demanding + time consuming, and often you finish the thing only to find out it doesn't work, thus the possibly apocryphal factoid about how the highest suicide rates in the orchestra are with the oboe and bassoon players...

Sax and clarinet reeds are the proverbial cakewalk in comparison, I could whittle one of those things out in 5 minutes, blindfolded, one hand tied behind my back.

Medir are a terrific company, very professional in their dealings.
 
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