[DougR]

This is deeply and seriously misleading.

 

[DougR]

I believe thicker wood has a higher inherent oscillating or vibrating frequency and because of this, has no problem in keeping up with the resonant frequency of the instrument.

Here's another way of looking at it. In your mind, visualize a diving board of 3 inch thickness. Strike it hard on the end and it will have a natural vibrating frequency. If you were to replace the board with a 1 inch thicness piece of timber, striking it hard on the end will, of course, make it vibrate up and down, but, because of the thinner plank, the vibrations will be much slower.

No-one is likely to have time to pull all of the mistakes from this - it could easily be the subject of a fourth year dissertation.

The principle horror is the board analogy - while you will get a higher resonant frequency from a free end board when comparing thicker with thinner, this assumes that there are no other changes - this is grossly unfair as there are many more variables among which are:
The length of the lay
The form of the curve of the lay
The degree of muscular support
The position of the support
The mass distribution in the reed tip.
The degree of damping from the players lips....

and on and on and on.

The process of matching - horn/mouthpiece/player with the musical demands is very very complex and that which might be unplayable to one man may be perfect for someone else.

Dave D. said this

I doubt that the fingering system has anything to do with what reed one chooses. Albert or Boehm, it would be the mouthpiece and the player's embouchure that dictates the reed strength. At least that's the way I see it. DAVE

and I think he just about nailed it.