RE: Was Organic-Manic, now Giant Reed
- To: Mediterranean Plants , "'r*@ksu.edu'"
- Subject: RE: Was Organic-Manic, now Giant Reed
- From: R* R*
- Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 14:00:50 +0800
> - but isn't this also
> the traditional material for bassoon and oboe reeds, maybe clarinet and
> sax as well?
>
No sorry Bob,
my father was the principal oboist in the Perth Symphony Orchestra for many
years
and he made his own mouthpieces out of real bamboo reeds. He bought the
reed material from specialist shops and was very fussy about the stock
rejecting many pieces for the slightest tonal imbalance. Never one to let
all his hard work making the things go to waste he sold his rejects to
students and other lesser players who couldn't tell that they had any
faults. As far as I'm aware at the time he was the only oboist making
mouthpieces in this state. It took ages so I'm not suprised.
He had this wonderful little specialist plane that he used to shave the
reeds into the shape required
and next to our telephone in the cupboard support pillar that went to the
ceiling he had hammered a huge nail that he used to tension the string on as
he tied the reeds to the plug piece.
Many a visitor wondered why this big nail was there...
Rod
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