| If I have a reed that will not play for me, I have a set | | | | and lay it down on a very flat, clean surface. Now |
| of steps that I will take. Many reed problems can be | | | | position the reed so that you are sanding the back half |
| fixed by sanding the back of the reed to make sure it | | | | of the reed. You DO NOT want to sand all of the |
| is flat. | | | | back of the reed, this will take wood out of the heart |
| Your mouthpiece table should be flat, and the back of | | | | and the tip and make your reed too soft. I like to use |
| the reed should also be flat. If you take your reed and | | | | side to side motion. It is important that you don't send in |
| lay it down on a very flat surface, such as a piece of | | | | just one place and create a line where you sanded. |
| glass, you can gently rock the reed back and forth and | | | | Go side to side about 10 times, and then rub the reed |
| see if it is flat. My favorite way to check, is to take the | | | | on some paper (or the back of the sandpaper) and |
| reed, lay it on the flat surface, put even pressure on | | | | check to see if there are dull looking spots (low spots). |
| the entire reed with my fingers, and rub it around in a | | | | You want to sand until the low spots are gone, and all |
| circular motion on a clean piece of paper. Do this for | | | | of the back is shiny. |
| about 30 seconds, then pick up the reed and look at | | | | We only want the back half of the reed to be shiny. |
| the back. You will see that some parts of the reed are | | | | Most of the front half doesn't even touch the |
| shiny and some are not. The shinny parts are high | | | | mouthpiece. Put the reed back on your mouthpiece |
| spots, and the dull parts are low spots. | | | | and try it out. It will probably play better. I sand the back |
| The idea is to make all of the back shiny. I like to use a | | | | of all reeds. I usually wait until I have played the reed a |
| piece of extra fine sandpaper, usually around 400 grit. | | | | couple of times, before I do any work on it. |
| The sandpaper is Grey in color. Take the sandpaper | | | | |