[blaine hoopes]

I haven't played alto since I was much younger but basal thumb arthritis in left hand is making it painful to play tenor and the alto is much more comfortable so I just started up again. I pulled out some old boxes of sax stuff and found all these unopened boxes of alto reeds. I'm guessing I bought them back in the 70's? 80's? no idea really.

One box of Vandoren reeds was already open and at first the yellow foam block looked normal (rectangular like normal) but I noticed some foam bits on the reeds and when I touched the foam it dissolved into the blob of goo you see on top of the reed boxes in the picture. I cut a fresh block of grey foam and put in the open box - but any foam is probably going to do the same thing over time. (?)

Questions:
How long ago would a box of 10 VD alto reeds have been priced at $7.99?
Do you agree that I should immediately open all these unopened boxes and get that yellow foam out of there?
What would you use in place of that foam block?
Am I the luckiest S.O.B in the world to have all these old alto reeds?

 

[skeller047]

This makes me wonder what will happen to the current crop of VD Reeds (great name for them!) 40 or 50 years from now. Will the mylar turn brittle? Or adhere to the plastic guard? Will the plastic guard adhere to the reed? ....

Regarding your problem, yes open those boxes and clean the reeds to get rid of any deteriorated foam. Then store them in a nice wooden or paper box, with tissue paper separating the layers. Then they will last another 50 years and you can leave them to your grandkids.

I just opened a box of Rico brown box reeds I bought in 1983. Paper box, paper between layers, fluffy paper to keep them from rattling around. They play great!


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[1saxman]

Steve; that's encouraging - I recently bought an unopened brown box too - now I'm looking forward to trying them. A box of 25!

 

[blaine hoopes]

Well I'm really glad I discovered this before it was too late and got these boxes open. Most of the boxes were fine but one box had the reeds smooshed into the dissolving foam. I had to resort to a couple drops of naptha (lighter fluid) on a microfiber cloth to get the goo off. Now I have them all safely stored in old Rico paper cushions.

 

[skeller047]

Steve; that's encouraging - I recently bought an unopened brown box too - now I'm looking forward to trying them. A box of 25!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Rico V-cut reeds in the iconic brown box are, or rather were, the best playing reeds. I was beginning to think I was a victim of selective memory syndrome. Then I opened this box of 25 alto reeds, V-3 1/2, because I hadn't played my alto in 7 or 8 years, and I just got one of those new10M Fan Alto Madness pieces, and needed a reed. Took out the first four, they all killed it.

D'Addario, ARE YOU LISTENING????? Start cutting some reeds like the old Brown Box ones!!!!! Jazz Select ain't it! Orange Box ain't it!

Everyone I knew in the 1980's played them, though some played La Voz too. But the Rico's were like the default reed, and for good reason.

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[blaine hoopes]

I remember back in the 70's everyone I knew was playing more expensive reeds and I was buying brown box 25 reeds because that's what I could afford. And when I would splurge on more expensive reeds I never liked them as much as the brown box reeds. I remember trying to tell the other sax players that the brown box sounded better and they all thought I was nuts.

These days I wonder how much of it is the way they are cut and how much of it is that the crop of cane just isn't the same. I tend to think that the cane hasn't been very good since the 60's-70's.

 

[skeller047]

I remember back in the 70's everyone I knew was playing more expensive reeds and I was buying brown box 25 reeds because that's what I could afford. And when I would splurge on more expensive reeds I never liked them as much as the brown box reeds. I remember trying to tell the other sax players that the brown box sounded better and they all thought I was nuts.

These days I wonder how much of it is the way they are cut and how much of it is that the crop of cane just isn't the same. I tend to think that the cane hasn't been very good since the 60's-70's.

In the late '60s and early '70s, I was in college, and teachers and students were playing Vandoren and Hemke, plus a few other boutique reeds. I was playing Olivieri. I had never played Rico in high school because I was studying clarinet seriously, so was using Vandoren there. I just transferred that snobbery to alto. First VD, then Olivieri.

Then I started playing for a living... and saw what all the cats were playing. Rico. Some La Voz, but mostly Rico. So I tried them and didn't look back.

In the '90s I switched to Jazz Select, because Rico had switched to the orange box, and they weren't as good. In the last 10 years, I've favored Rigotti. But none of them are as good as a good Rico brown box.

I don't think it's the cane, I think it's the cut. For a jazz setup, Rico was the Goldilocks reed - just right.

OK, I'll stop ranting now...

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[smash]

I disliked the way Vandoren reeds played when they started wrapping them in foil. I took a box of V16, opened all of the foil and left them on my desk. That was 12-14 years ago and I just started playing these reeds. They are fantastic and I now regret not doing this to a bunch of boxes!! Aged reeds are great!! My private teacher in high school told a story of finding an old box of Ricos that he forgot about and that they were exceptional.

 

[blaine hoopes]

I enjoy working on reeds. Back in the 70's I read everything I could find on adjusting reeds but I usually made them worse. But I didn't throw reeds away when they got chipped or didn't play well out of the box (or if I ruined them trying to adjust them). I saved them so I have a big bag of brown box reeds that are chipped, split or just didn't play.

In my old age, I've gotten pretty good at carving reeds. I have reed wizard tool (a really early one that is not the same the ones you can buy now) - it is not a magic bullet (you still have to know what you're doing) but it is great for making sure both sides of the reed are the same.

Here is an old Rico that was chipped and split and how much I will need to carve it back:

Here is after I carved the bark back with a pocket knife and started using the reed wizard to get various areas of the reed the same on both sides:

And carved a bit more with pocket knife and tip clipped:

Now move on with the ReedWizard to balance the rest of the areas of the reed:

More in next post ....

 

[blaine hoopes]

Scraping with knife to get spots the ReedWizard doesn't catch:

Working the tip with ReedWizard:

A little fine tuning with the ReedWizard and this plays pretty wonderfully. I spent less than 15 minutes and that was with stopping to snap pictures. It took me longer to type up this post than it took to fix the reed:

It's getting pretty short and the butt doesn't even stick out the back of the ligature now. When this wear out and needs to be clipped back even further, I'll carve it into an alto reed.

 

[ving]

I have a ton of reeds I’ve saved from 20 years of playing, some are quite used but a lot are reeds that were either too hard or not balanced or reeds I used in trying various mouthpieces. I’ve been spending time now being at home with no gigs to run to (!) working on them; finally using a reed clipper I’ve had forever and balancing and sanding reeds as well. I’m not quite as adept as you with recutting a chipped reed but I’m surprised at how much mileage you can actually get from a reed if you take the time to prep. Glad I didn’t just throw these out, haha. I have thousands of dollars worth I’m sure.

 

[ving]

Also, reed prep is a much more useful obsession than trying mouthpieces too!

 

[Brujo]

Can you also adjust the hardness or stiffness? I ended up with a whole bunch of old #5 reeds. Much stiffer than I can play. But if I, or someone, could shave them down to be softer it would be great to make them more useful.

 

[ving]

I have the ridenour ATG materials as well, and that’s the most efficient method for taking even material off to decrease the hardness of a reed; essentially using a sanding block to take material off the reed in an even fashion. I don’t do this that much with that stiff if a reed though, as I’m not patient enough to do that much sanding! I like to have a slightly harder reed to start but not really more than a half a strength harder if that. I’m sure I could sand a 5 down to a useable level, but it would be hard to duplicate with having to alter a reed that much I think though.

 

[blaine hoopes]

I do it all the time with carving down a too hard reed to a softer one. I have a lot of #5 bari reeds and I shave them down to about a 3 1/2 or 4. I prefer to scrape - I don't care for sandpaper when working on reeds but that's just me. But without one of those really fancy reed duplicators, I don't know any way to shave down/adjust a reed for someone else since I have to play test it to know when I've got it adjusted right. So I only adjust reeds for myself.