Cane is a natural product and slight differences of appearance are normal. Reeds are not cut to a specific strength. After they are cut and profiled, the tip is tested for flexibility.
This is why some reeds are slightly harder or softer than others within a box. This is intentional. Quick tip: If your reed feels too hard, try moving it down from the tip. This will make it feel a little softer. Too hard? Try the opposite. Repositioning can make a huge difference! Prevention is your best friend.
We have a technique you can use here. Vandoren offers a Hygro Reed Case to help keep your reeds at optimal humidity and prevent warping.
It will lead to excessive warping and bacteria build up. If your reed has already warped, try soaking it in water for a good amount of time and rub them on a flat, clean surface. When rubbing them, the key is to press down on the reed as you rub it across the surface. This may take some time depending on how warped your reeds are but eventually it should be useable.
Since reeds are made from organic material, they are biodegradable! Following the above reed care tips will save you time, money, and frustration.
If you find that they work for you, share the knowledge with your friends and bandmates. My friend says he just rubs his under cold water and they last much longer. Will this have any effect on the reeds? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Preparing the Reed Before you play any reed, you must first moisten it. Attaches to music stand. Colors may vary. Learn More. Designed with functionality and style, this sleek case protects up to 10 saxophone reeds. It has a flat surface to keep your reeds from warping, is lightweight, virtually indestructible, and features a spring-loaded closure. All Rigotti Reed Knives feature tempered steel blades and hardwood handles.
Your reed starts squeaking, it feels stuffy, it feels more resistant, it won't have a nice even vibration, the tone becomes poor and articulation completely sucks.
One thing you can do to solve that is to get a piece of sandpaper and try to sand the belly of the reed. The problem with this, of course, is that although sanding increases contact between the belly and the table of the mouthpiece, sanding the heart of the reed completely destroys the reed. You are not supposed to sand the heart of the reed, and when you are sanding the belly of the reed that is exactly what you are sanding if your reed is warped.
So even though you might get the reed to play again for that practice session, by sanding the belly, that reed eventually dies because of that. Fortunately, there are people in this world that smoke cigars and drink scotch, but that's beside the point. I know how this sounds. So, cigar smokers like to have tobacco at a certain humidity. They don't want it to dry out. What they use are small, compact humidity packs or pouches that maintain different relative humidities.
These pouches are commonly made by a company called Boveda, and I think they are the exact thing that Rico sells. Humidity packs work really great and are actually quite reliable at preventing reed warping. And they are easy to test with a hygrometer. Hygrometer's measure the amount of humidity in the air, and they are completely straightforward and uncomplicated to use.
So after you play or practice on your saxophone, you take that reed after you're done, soak it in water, dry it and put it back into its little case, put the case into a sealed Ziploc bag with all your other reeds in it, throw in the humidity pouch, and seal the bag up. What happens once the bag is sealed is that at first, the humidity will be higher than indicated on the humidity pouch—way over, if we're being strictly accurate—but slowly over a few hours the pouch will remove humidity until the relative humidity inside the bag is as indicated.
These humidity packs come in a range of different percentages, according to the manufacturer. Humidity packs are good for many, many , months. The third instance is where I have a reed on my instrument and I'm on stage and I have a couple of extra backup reeds, just in case. This is, strictly, for the reeds I want to keep ready to play, so that I don't have to worry about them drying out, and then I have to waterlog them before slapping them on.
I do that just for the sake of convenience. Given enough time in this environment, your reeds will, of course, start to mold and mildew. So be careful with this humidity pack. So if you do that, you don't want to leave your reeds for long durations in that kind of environment.
All right reserved. Its the nightmare of every saxophone player - one day you have the most wonderful sounding reed in the world, and the next day - poof! You're stuck with this piece of wood that's become massively warped or winkled. Now it just sounds like you are playing on tissue paper.
What are you going to do? In order to understand what has happened to your reed, we need to talk a little bit about plant biology. Your reed, after all, was once part of a living plant. The latin name for this plant is Arundo Donax.
In english, we often call this "Reed Cane". Much like Bamboo or Sugar Cane, Reed cane is a tall, slim cane, which is generally evenly round. The cane is native to the Mediterranean region, although it has been spread as a decorative garden plant to the southern United States. Unfortunately, it spreads quite prolifically, and has become a major environmental pest in many areas, particularly in California. But enough about that - lets talk warping!
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