Chiff and Fipple Forums

As we struggle with our reeds, and pursue that elusive sound, it may help to know there is another tribe of musicians who know and understand our pain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSAllHtkaa0


ob

And like they say; “There are no good reeds, you just learn to play the bad ones”.

Ah yes....The Oboe: An ill wind that nobody blows good (gotta give that one to Danny Kaye)
Excellent clip, thanks.

For some of us life is just to easy ,so we need something to stress it up a bit . For me it was either Uilleann pipes or base jumping, but I decided base jumping is for wimps.

RORY

I think we have it quite good actually. I was once talking to a friend who was studying oboe at the Conservatoire of music, about reeds and reedmaking. She nearly died when I said the last reed I made has lasted 5 years so far! She said she was lucky if her reeds lasted five days!

On the downside, for about 15 years I never really honed my reedmaking skills (until I started making them for others), because once I made a reed that played well, I never needed to make another one for a long time.

Radically different rates of wear and tear make sense, since the playing conditions are much different. Unlike Uilleann pipe chanter reeds, oboe reeds must be played wet or they won't function properly and could possibly crack. And then there's the constant contact with the lips, which is the only way to play the thing.

Oboists do suffer from reed deterioration. Having participated in ¨The Great Ptyalin Debates¨ from my youth, and discussions of ´the ptyalin curve´ as well, I well know this. But this is compensated for with a wider variety of available jigs and fixtures like gougers and profilers that can produce remarkable precision and repeatability in reed making. I was mostly pointing out that the family of double-reeds has a lot of misery in common.

Bob

I knew this had come up before: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=89255&start=0#p1081323
Unfortunately the image address of Rorybellows´ neat little homemade gouger has expired. Perhaps if we ask nicely, Rory can re-post it somewhere accessable? Rory? Pretty please?

Bob