Video of protecting my reeds from changing weather patterns

[Anonymous]

Michael – have you tried storing a reed in liquid when its not being played on? I would give it a try, it might just solve your problems,
especially in your area.

[Anonymous]

sorry – got called away, so didn’t have time to watch your video, but just got back and watched it.

the humidifier system looks cool, but i’m ok with the liquid storage.
Forget to add when i store reeds in liquid, i keep the reed in the little platic cases to keep the reed flat.

As for The glass equipment, it’s very similar to what the old french sax players used to do, i do what the old players used to do, soak a new reed for 10 mins, then dry it off, place it on a flat surface (kitchen side) and rub it in a circle for a couple of mins, the idea is to seal the pores. Then i rub the my thumb nail and press down hard on the top of the reed to seal it. Works fine for me.

I did use to shave both sides of a reed with the sharp edge of scissors, found that helped, only problem the reeds never last very long once they were shave – so went back to the french system.

[Anonymous]

btw – when i bought my guardella last year i remember when i played higher up it squeeked. Had nothing to do with the reed, what it was in my case, when you play a metal mouthpiece for the first time, because the mouthpiece is different in size to a ebonite mouthpiece where you put your lips round it, your lips can lose the seal when changing wind speed while blowing higher up notes.

I noticed the same thing with theo wanne, he got a pro to try out his mouthpiece, and the pro not used to very bright mouthpieces was squeaking like crazy, in the end theo took it off the guy and got someone else used to bright mouthpieces to play itvand had no problems with it.

I’m betting everyone who gets a new guardella will squeek for the first few weeks, so don’t get discouraged if it does happen.

[Author]

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