[Cranky Bear]

Im having an interesting problem...I use lavoz reeds on tenor, primarily a med. hard. I decided to try a hard reed instead of the medhard I usually use. So I slap it on and blow a few notes, and it plays like a medium! what the heck?! It should be harder to play, shouldn't it? It wasn't just the one reed either, it was all of them!! am I crazy?! I don't know...
has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Jonathan C.]

Could it just be a bad batch? You may consider a who new reed brand all together.

 

[hakukani]

I've found over the years that in boxes of reeds, there's ~a half reed strength difference over the whole box.

 

[Cranky Bear]

I found a way to make them harder...I took a pair of scissors and cut a small portion of the tip off, then reshaped it with a file.....It plays really well now. although this sounds a little extreme just to get a hard reed...why would there be such a difference among reeds...surely manufacturers wouldn't suck that much?

 

[Jonathan C.]

I am by no means no expert, and their will probably be other opinions.

But I believe, that it could do with the Cane the reeds were cut from. They way they were cut? Thats all I can think of.

 

[Dave Dolson]

In my experience reeds are among the most inconsistent things in the saxophone world. Trimming and shaving are two ways to bring most reeds in a box into a match. DAVE

 

[Agent27]

I found a way to make them harder...I took a pair of scissors and cut a small portion of the tip off, then reshaped it with a file.....It plays really well now. although this sounds a little extreme just to get a hard reed...why would there be such a difference among reeds...surely manufacturers wouldn't suck that much?

They make these thinks called reed trimmers. Much more accurate than scissors.