Fixing and Taking Care of Oboe Reeds

Common Problems with Store-bought Oboe Reeds

There are three types of oboe reeds: handmade, hand-finished and fully machine-made. Handmade are usually the best, but often the most expensive. The best quality for the money is to purchase hand-finished reeds, generally from oboe stores (see Oboe Reeds, Repair, and Supplies). Sometimes machine-made reeds can be good, but generally have one of three problems:

1) Most commonly, the reeds rated "soft" to "medium" are very responsive, and will play every low note easily, but they are very often not focused, or pitched, and are too vibrant to allow the high register to come out easily. Consequently, students try to control them by biting and end up having a pinched, sharp, soft sound.

2) If the reed is too hard (generally reeds rated "medium-hard" to "hard"), students will often bite to close the reed enough to make a sound (as when air escapes from a balloon , the opening has to be squeezed together to vibrate). Exerting this kind of control is tiring, however, and most students cannot keep it up consistently, and tend to play out of tune with inconsistent attacks. Also, when they begin to play on reeds that do not need this kind of control, they are unable to stop biting, and have very small, sharp tones.

3) Some reeds sound great, but because the machine is unable to scrape in a precise manner, and cannot keep the "rails" of bark that come up the sides of the reeds and hold it open, the reed closes down too much almost instantly.

FIXING REEDS (without and with tools)

If your reed is too closed, or is too sharp:

1) Open the tip of a soaked reed with your fingers. Be careful not to pinch too hard, or you may crack it! This is very temporary, but can sometimes get you through a rehearsal or concert.

2) Clean the reed out with a pipe cleaner. Wet the pipe cleaner and push through tube first. Do not push through in the opposite direction, cane first. This is particularly effective with older reeds that have collected “foreign matter” inside.

3) Using 600 wet/dry sandpaper, lightly sand the whole reed. This should scrape off any residue, as well as loosen the reed a little. It may also lower the pitch of a sharp reed. It is always better to take too little off than too much.

If your reed is too open or flat:

1) Squish the back of a soaked reed. You will know if you have done too much, and if so: see #1 above. If the back does not feel like it can squish without cracking the reed, there is probably too much cane on it, and it will need to be scraped with a knife.

If your reed leaks:

1) If the reed leaks near the thread, you can apply fish skin by wetting it and wrapping just once around if possible. Plumber’s Teflon tape works even better, and does not need to be moistened. If the reed leaks farther up, and your mouth does not cover it -throw it out!

2) Try soaking the reed longer in hotter water. It's a long shot, but it can work.

More Advanced Fixing with Reedmaking Tools

If you feel comfortable with using a reed knife, below are the tools you will need. Remember to always use a sharp reed knife as it scrapes more accurately with out squishing the cane. For information on how to sharpen a knife, see here. While scraping, support the reed with a finger and the plaque, and use forward strokes with the knife--the knife should not be pushed into the cane, but instead scrape along the surface.

Basic Tools needed:

• Hollow-ground knife (Vitry or Landwell knives are good, and many other brands work well)

• Flat plaques (convex plaques force the sides of the reed apart which may cause instability in the reed)

• Block or billot (with a flat surface and non-skid material on the bottom)

• Sharpening stone (Your knife must be sharp at all times! A combination of a fine india oil stone (needs mineral or honing oil) or a hard arkansas stone works well for me . I also use a diamond stone to regain the edge of the knife when it gets too rounded to sharpen)

Relatively easy things to do to fix your reed using tools:

1) If the reed is too vibrant, too flat and too easy, clip about a 1/4 mm. off the tip using the knife (or a razor blade) and the block. The reed should get harder and sharper. If it does not, something else may be called for: see #3 below.

2) If the reed is not vibrant enough, and too sharp, scrape lightly off the "channels" in the heart, i.e.: avoid the spine in the center and the rails on the sides. Be sure to scrape over the “edge” of the heart where it meets the tip but avoid scraping the tip. Also look at the end of the tip in a light. Sometimes the cane is too thick there and thinning the end will increase vibration.

3) If the reed is unfocused, unstable and too vibrant, you may need to address one of the areas that machines cannot get thin enough - the sides of the tip. Gently thin the sides of the tip with the plaque in. The reed should be fully supported by a finger while being scraped. The reed should get easier, and more focused. It may be helpful to thin, or mark right at the heart on the sides of the tip, to create a line of separation there for even more focus (see #4 below). You may need to clip the tip after scraping as it may become too flat and easy. The reed should become sharper and more stable after each clip.

4) Another focusing technique is to separate the tip from the heart on the sides. Scrape gently with very short strokes, or score the knife, where the tip meets the heart on the sides. The tip may also need to be clipped after this to make the reed stable again.

5) If the back feels unsquishable, and is holding the reed too open, scrape carefully up the back, while keeping the rails on the sides, and the spine in the center. If your reed does not have rails or spine, scrape beside where you would like them to be, and you will create small ones this way. This should close the reed down, thicken the sound and sharpen the pitch, particularly in the high register.

For more detailed and advanced information about reedmaking, see here.

REED CARE

The following suggestions will help to prolong the working life of your reeds:

1) Soak your reeds in lukewarm to hot tap water. Hot water soaks the reed more quickly, and makes them stronger. Older reeds generally need to be soaked longer. So soak your reed the amount needed to get the strength desired. Also, saliva has a destructive influence on cane, and will degrade your reed more quickly if you only soak your reeds in your mouth. If warm water is not available, soak the reed in cool tap water, then warm it up in your mouth as needed.

2) Always wipe the saliva off the reed, and suck it out of the reed before putting it away. Actually, there should not be much saliva on the reed in the first place, because you should be playing on the dry part of the lip.

3) Keep the reed in a sturdy, well-ventilated case. If you must use a "tube", poke a hole in the end to allow air movement. A "French" or "ribbon" style reed case, or one that uses "mandrels" is the best.

4) Rotate your reeds. Do not play your favourite all the time. Practice, or play the loud parts on your "B" reed. This should keep both of them going for longer. Ideally, you should have at least three at all times.

5) Keep lipstick and food off and out of your reed. These "foreign" elements will inhibit vibrations, and speed up the decay process.