Reed Adjustment Guide

The following suggestions presume that the reed is made with the standard American long scrape as illustrated in the accompanying diagram .

The performance of a reed can be described using four basic criteria: response, resistance,tone quality, and stability.

• Response: This refers to the reed's ability to speak freely at all dynamic levels.  It should speak easily at the softest possible dynamic while maintaining a true sound, and it should speak cleanly at a loud dynamic without splattering or spreading. These characteristics should be consistent in all registers.
• Resistance: Resistance describes how much air the reed will accept and how readily it accepts it.  It should be possible to play your full dynamic range with very little embouchure intervention except at the softest dynamics.  No-one can maintain good control and endurance on a reed that requires constant embouchure action.   A reed that is too easy (resistance too low) is as tiring as a reed that is too hard (resistance too high).  Although the embouchure is very free on a too-easy reed, the tendency to search for more tone and overblow can cause fatigue very quickly.

Here's a good test to determine the reed's overall resistance level.  First confirm that the reed opening is correct. Then, with the reed in the oboe, blow gently through it with a normal, but relaxed, embouchure.  Don't try to influence the tone in any way.  Gradually increase the air pressure until the reed speaks by itself.  The resulting dynamic should be mezzo-piano or very close to it .  If it is too loud, the reed will be too hard to play easily; if it is too soft, the reed will feel "limited" and not project well.

In addition, we can describe another aspect of resistance - hardness - that refers to the amount of embouchure tension (preferably minimal) needed to keep the reed behaving.  Before making a judgment about the reed's hardness (and possibly ruining it), always confirm that the opening is not too large.  Squeeze the opening to a comfortable size and try the reed again.

• Tone Quality: The actual timbre of the sound is a personal matter, and not important here.  It is important to get a good balance between low and high partials, allowing the sound to be as complex and rich as possible.  A reed that has only the lower partials will sound dull, lack brilliance, and will not project.  Do not confuse this with making a dark sound.  A reed that has only the higher partials will sound shrill and thin.
• Stability: Refers both to the reed's overall pitch tendency as well as its ability to maintain that pitch.  Reeds can manifest a confusing variety of combinations: flat and stable, flat and wild, sharp and wild, sharp and dull, etc. Some of these have no ready solution.  Ideally, the reed should play in tune and hold its pitch at any dynamic, at any level of air pressure, and with any reasonable variation of embouchure tension or reed placement in the mouth.

Remember that anything you do to a reed affects all four of the above considerations.  You will seldom cure one problem without creating another.  Success in the diagnostic process consists of finding the solution that removes the most problems and creates the fewest new ones.  Think before you scrape! Keep notes if necessary.

However, the best reed-making is purely intuitive - you just know what to do.  This knowledge is the result of experience, so don't be afraid to experiment occasionally - even recklessly - to see what happens.  You may learn something.  Do be careful, though, that your reedmaking isn't entirely intuitive; you should be able to defend your actions if called upon to think about them.

Common actions and their effects...

Scraping the whole surface of the tip thinner

• Easier response
• Lower resistance
• Brighter, somewhat shallower, sound
• Slightly flatter pitch and decreased stability
• If the reed is nearly finished, scraping the whole tip is seldom a good idea.  It tends to make the reed chirpy and shrill because it emphasizes the tip vibrations too much.  In this case, it's usually better to try to get more vibrations some other way - scraping the heart a bit, for instance - and then finishing just the sides and corners of the tip.

Scraping just the extremities of the tip (sides and corners - "finishing the tip")

• Somewhat easier response
• Somewhat lower resistance
• More focused, refined sound
• If done carefully, this should improve stability without affecting the pitch.

Often, finishing the tip will unify all the elements of the reed after everything else looks all right.  It should be among the last things you do to a reed and always with a very sharp knife.

Clipping the tip

• Harder response.
• Higher resistance
• Duller, shallower, less vibrant sound
• Sharper pitch and improved stability
• Before clipping the tip, be sure it really needs clipping.  The reed should feel a little loose and play a little flat.  Don't clip just to improve the tone! Clipping a bright, sharp reed that doesn't vibrate well to make it sound darker won't help it a bit.  Always clip off the tiniest possible amount; it's better to clip a reed three times to get what you want than to clip it too much once.

Scraping the heart (not the center!)

• Somewhat improved response
• Lower resistance
• Brighter, more raucous and vibrant, sound
• Flatter pitch and decreased stability
• This is often the cure for a stodgy, wooden reed that refuses to vibrate.  Try to stay away from the center of the heart unless the reed just doesn't vibrate at all.

Scraping the back (top half)

• Slightly more sluggish response
• Slightly lower resistance
• Warmer, less brilliant sound
• Flatter pitch and decreased stability
• After the first roughing-out stages, wood should mostly be removed from the top of the back, blending as you get closer to the string.  Making the whole back thin weakens the reed too much.  Be sure, also, to leave a visible spine down the center and rails along each side to provide structure.  Avoid having too much of a hump between the top of the back and the heart - blend it in.

POSSIBLE CURES FOR COMMON PROBLEMS

Reed too flat

There are several things that can cause this problem: the opening is too big, the reed is well-made but too long, the overlap is too slight, or too much wood has been removed from the reed.  It can also be a combination of these factors.

If the opening seems too large, take care of that first.  Soak the reed well and, with the plaque inserted, squeeze just behind the tip gently, holding the reed between your thumb and index finger.  Once you're pretty sure it won't crack, squeeze hard. Then gradually squeeze a little closer to the string.  Finally, squeeze as hard and as close to the string as you dare.  Twist the tube back and forth a little to weaken the reed further.  If it cracks now, don't worry too much; it would have cracked sooner or later anyway.  Better now than during a concert.  This is the only effective way to make the opening smaller.  Weakening the reed by scraping is not effective.  The next time you soak the reed, the opening will probably be too large again.  Repeat the squeezing procedure, and after a few days it should settle down.

If the reed seems to play well but just a bit flat, it probably needs to have the tip clipped.  Be careful to clip only the tiniest amount at a time and try the reed after each clip.

You can raise the pitch slightly by increasing the amount of overlap.  Gently slip the blades a little apart .  Note that this will also make the tone less vibrant.

If the reed is flat because too much wood has been removed, it may be difficult to remake.  Usually, this happens if the back or the heart (or both) have been scraped too thin.  Try clipping it a little.  Chances are the pitch will improve but the sound will not.  Be prepared to give up and make a new reed without making the same mistakes.

The general order of operation in the case of a flat, but otherwise well-made, reed is to clip it until it crows "C", then loosen it up if necessary, clip again if necessary, etc.   The closer you get to an acceptable result the smaller the adjustments should be.  Try the reed after every (tiny) clip and after every (minimal) scraping procedure.

Reed too sharp

Sharpness can be due to the opening being too small, the reed being too short, too great an overlap, or too much wood being left on the reed.

If the opening is too small, there is usually no remedy.  Try soaking the reed for a good long time (15-20 minutes) and see if it improves.  Squeezing it gently open with your fingers is a temporary solution.  Some people recommend changing the shape of the tube with pliers to adjust the opening, but I have never found this to be effective.  If you get consistently small openings, try using cane with a smaller diameter, and/or a wider shaper tip, and/or tying the reeds on a little longer (but keeping the same finished length).

If the reed is clipped too short, it's probably hopeless.  Often this is the result of carelessly clipping too much and then scraping too much, clipping, scraping, etc. Be more careful.

The overlap can be reduced by slipping the blades.  This will also make the tone more resonant, but is at best a temporary solution - the blades will slide back to their original position after a while.

If the reed is sharp because it's still too thick, scrape more off.  The reed is probably not well balanced in this case, and where to remove wood should be visibly obvious.

Reed won't vibrate

First, determine whether the sound of the reed is dull and wooden or whether it's thin and shrill.

If it's dull and wooden, removing wood from the heart usually fixes the problem.  In extreme cases, you can even take wood from the center of the heart.  Note that this will make the reed flatter.  If the reed is dull and wooden and flat, it probably won't ever work.

If it's shrill, take more wood from the back.  Continue scraping until the sound gets a little better, then balance the rest of the reed to what you've done.  This will also make it flatter, but most shrill reeds are sharp so you're OK.  Note that reeds that tend towards shrillness rarely turn out well.

Reed vibrates too much (raucous)

This is often a good thing in the early stages, particularly with English horn reeds.  Usually, the reed is well-balanced but just not finished.  If this is the case, scrape equally from the tip, the heart, and the top of the back and try it again.   Sometimes, raucousness in a nearly finished reed is the result of the opening being too large.  If that's the case, squeeze it down before doing anything else.  Usually, the reed will play completely differently with the correct opening.