
We have a new product to offer our customers who prefer to make the final reed adjustments by hand scraping. We call it the “90%” Bocal reed and it will be available at a slightly reduced price compared to a 100% finished reed.
There is no difference between Professional and Standard reeds in terms of materials used. However, professional reeds are selected as some reeds have better intonation, articulation, tone and finishing etc¡. The reeds are not intentionally made this way. When I make them, some of them simply turn out better than others.
The B shaper is similar to Rigoutat-2.
The D shaper is similar to RC13.
The X is our most broad oboe shaper.
The only difference between the "German" and "French" templates is that there is a much more gradual step in the scrape from the "heart" of the reed down to the tip on the french template. When you look carefully at reeds made from each of the two templates and compare them, it will look as if the german template reed has a much more clearly defined tip area.
Both the "german" and "french" scrapes would work on all oboes.
Question: What is the difference between oboe reeds made from cane gouged with a C/S (centre to side ratio) of 0.15 and 0.18?
Answer: The centre to side ratio is the difference in thickness measurement between the centre of the cane compared to the side of the cane at the time the cane is gouged, before it is shaped and tied on and finished scraping. The difference in behaviour of two reeds made identically but from the two different C/S ratios, is that the 0.18 gouged reeds generally blow more freely and have less strong openings when compared with a reed gouged at 0.15. The resulting tone or timbre of the reed made from cane gouged at 0.18 is often less "thick" or "heavy" sounding than the 0.15