back D problems

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sun Apr 07, 2002 9:23 am

Brian,
If you've addressed humidity changes, bridal adjustments, trimming the reed and looking for leaks, then it's possible you need to replace the reed.
I can't tell you what to do or what your sacrifices should be. When I was young and needed money I could... skip lunch and save the cash _or_ mow lawns and do extra chores. I was very skinny as a child!

Brian Lee · Post by **Brian Lee** » Sun Apr 07, 2002 3:07 pm

I've looked into David's reeds, and it looks like he's only charging about $40 per, so in a month or so, perhaps I can afford to spring for a new reed or two! I'll let ya all know hwo it goes...

B~

AlanBurton · Post by **AlanBurton** » Mon Apr 08, 2002 10:01 am

Bck D problems. Pete is right in my opinion. Closing down the reed stabilises the pressure on the reed overall, so you can move "across" from one 8ve to another with less pressure to gain high octave with out that hefty squeeze on the bag. But trimming can also help, but with obvious effects. If you're feeling really dangerous, unbind the reed and shove the the staple in .5 - 1mm this will stiffen the reed and can cure bad back d but will sharpen your upper 8ve.Can also put what I have hard referred to as "Jizz" into your reed................
Alan

anima · Post by **anima** » Mon Apr 08, 2002 9:22 pm

After much experimentation I finally ascertained that most of my back D (and most of my reed problems in general) were related to humidity. So here's what I did to fix that. I bought one of those long plastic travel toothbrush containers, I cut a piece of sponge to fit the bottom half of it, wet the sponge and then put it in (not dripping wet). I cut a small piece of plastic from a coke bottle, fenestrated it with a hot fork, and then put that over the open part of the sponge end (to keep the reeds away from the wet sponge), I put the reeds in the cap end, put the whole thing together and Voila' - one reed humidifier. I let my two reeds sit in it overnight and this morning they played great. Even the one reed that I have never been able to use (it just flat out refused to play in Kansas City humidity) played today. The reed with the sinking back D that drove me crazy last week - played just beautifully. After about an hour, they started to "dry out" again and get wonky, so I'm just going to keep them in the humidifier whenever I'm not using them.

This seems to be just the quick fix I needed until the natural humidity here goes up again in about 2 months.

Did any of that make sense? I can upload some pix if anyone is interested.

Jeff
(sorry about the cross post)

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 9:07 am

Makes me think of those small cigar humidors - they actually have a gauge inside them so you can balance the humidity levels. So after your reeds dry out you could enjoy a puff or two;-)

I remember trying a similar method with ziploc baggies - but after a week or so, the contents (a piece of wood) started getting a bit mouldy - just a note for caution.

Cheers,

Paul

anima · Post by **anima** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 9:28 am

The sponge I used has some sort of antibacterial chemical built into it.

Dionys · Post by **Dionys** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 2:59 pm

You can purchase cigar humidors for not too much money. They come in all shapes and sizes and fit fine in most cases. My friend uses a humidity balancer in the case for her 60k+ violin. They work just fine.

Dionys