CMelodyMan
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Softening Hard reedsI bought a box of 50 #5 reeds off a site for $12 thinking that I could soften them to a desired, softer strength. I looked at Pete Thomas's website on how to soften reeds, I tried his method, and it didn't work. Any tips?
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JPSaxMan
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Shave some of it off with a reed knife? Or is that what the website said?
Softening reeds usually means just soaking them prior to use. Not actually cutting down the size of the reed
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sigmund
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Try reed drilling. It will permit the use of heavier reeds and still have the bottom speak easier. Check under Bootman Reed drilling on the web. He wrote a nice article and gets press for it but its an old proceess, before his time. Works well though.
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reisio
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Decent music stores have little sticks called "reed rush" which can be used for sanding them down - which is what you'll have to do...I doubt any amount of soaking will put much of a dent in a 5. Some form of normal sandpaper would probably work, but reed rush is the traditional way.
The ones I have at the moment are from Leblanc, so if you can't find them locally, you can probably get them one way or another from www.gleblanc.com .
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Tully
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Cutting the reed makes it harder. As for the reed drilling, you might as well try (www.bootmanmusic.com), but I highly doubt it would be enough of a change to allow you to use #5's.
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altosax4ever
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WTF?HOW THE H*** DID YOU GET 50 REEDS FOR $12?????!!!!!
I PAY $20 FOR 10!!!!!
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CMelodyMan
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Re: WTF? | altosax4ever wrote: | HOW THE H*** DID YOU GET 50 REEDS FOR $12?????!!!!!
I PAY $20 FOR 10!!!!!  | they're #5 strength reeds, that's why they were so cheap.
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Altosaxophonerules
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clearence maybe? I only know 2 ppl who prefer using 5's.The 2 are beginners who think the higher the number the better they are. I'm suprised they manage to get a sound out of it. As to softening reeds, I soften my reeds sometimes by using some sandpaper and shave the middle part of the reed down.
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cannonball_phil
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I use 3.5 reeds but other sax players tell me to go up to a 4.5 I'm not sure if I should take the advice actually i'm kinda afraid to make the transition because I heard they're kinda hard to play on I might as well go to 5, but they say I play to loud even for a size 8 mouth piece. what should I do make it or not?
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