Clip or sand to desired strength?

[Balladeer]

I'm looking for a darker, full-bodied sounding reed to use on a high-baffle tenor mouthpiece. I want a very clear sound that is easy-blowing for playing soft low notes yet firm enough to play easy altissimo and fatter-sounding palm key notes. I have found some good candidates (Classiques, Hemke, and Lavoz), but it seems that I always need to either clip a softer reed or sand (I sand rather than drill) a harder reed to make it just the right strength.

Do you find that it is better to start with a harder reed and sand/drill or to use an easy-blowing reed and make its tip harder by clipping?

[MS]

An interesting question. For me, using SLIGHTLY harder reeds, with break in and adjustment period has worked for me in the past, but it is time consuming to work on reed preparation so that the reed is playing well in two weeks. Ii also means that I have one or two in the works and rotate my broken in reeds. Reeds seem to last longer this way. Primairly for classic and moderately opem jazz pieces (round chambers with good blowing resistance). On these set-ups, I personally have to re-balance a softer reed after clipping, so this doesn't seem to work as well for me.

On high baffle/open facings, I end up doing a similar thing. I find a reed tip that gives me the edge/solidity I want and loosen it up on the vamp, so I can play phrases of any length at soft/loud volumes.

In the last year or two, I'm going toward less reed adjustment and finding a reed that I can put on and play without much fooling aroound. I've been trying Zonda reeds for the last 3 or 4 years, and am close to matching mouthpieces and reed strength where I have to do minimum fooling around. I don't really know if I've found reeds and mouthpieces that work together or I've changed my playing to adapt to the combinations. Maybe it's old age (57 and been playing for 45 years or so), but I'm learning to play slightly less resistant set-ups with better results.

Hemke's and LaVoz work ok for me. I've not had much results out of Vandoren clasics for open high baffle mps above size 2 or 2/12. I have a couple of high baffle mps made by Frank Wells who made the mps to play with Vandoren Classic size 2. THey play well and once I find a good reed, it lasts a long time.

With round chambered mps, I tend to use harder reeds and adjust. :D

[Cameron Wigmore]

Always start with a hard reed and shave it down to desired strength.
I had a haircut once that lasted almost an hour. The lady kept saying, "You can always take more off, but you can't put it back on". It's the same with reeds, although you can't ask it out on a date after you're done. 8)

[John Scorgie]

Like MS in the above posting, I also much prefer to start with stiffer reeds and work them down.

I also clip reeds, usually those pet reeds which you hate to give up when they go soft. The problem I find with buying softer reeds and then clipping them is that all too often the result is a reed that plays OK for awhile but then craps out because its heart is too weak.

The Larry Teal book has a good section on fixing reeds, complete with his much copied diagram. While some of his points are open to debate, I find this to be my favorite introduction to reed fixing. The Stein, Pino, Stubbins and Bonade clarinet books are also excellent sources if you want to read up on reed fixing. There are also some books entirely devoted to reed making and adjusting.

BTW, it has been quite a while since I used dutch rush or did any sanding on my reeds. I find that a knife (razor sharp) is much easier and at least 10X faster.

Understand that I am even older than MS and have been adjusting reeds for some time!