Reed-Making - How Reeds Are Made
All bassoon reeds are made from Rigotti tube cane which comes from the Var region of France. Since wet cane expands and reeds are soaked before being played, cane quarters are machined wet to match the playing conditions. Excessively warped cane is rejected. A critical part of creating consistent reeds lies in applying consistent reed-making techniques and controlled processes, yielding high quality reeds.
Reed Construction
Dynamic Reeds' custom-built profiler allows for thickness adjustments at 10 points along the profile. These multiple adjustment points have been used to create and test many profiles, discovering a combination of thicknesses that results in excellent reed response. In general, the profile is a French scrape with a near linear profile. The following table lists dimensions and materials used in reed construction.
| Quarter length | 120 mm |
| Mean gouge thickness | 1.15-1.20 mm |
| Shape | Popkin #2 (Straight Shaper) Tip 15.40 mm, Throat 8.80 mm, End 10.55 mm |
| Profile | tip 0.35 mm (varies with blade length) shoulder 0.75 mm French scrape, near linear taper |
| Wire | 22 gauge brass |
| Sealant | clear nail hardener (an excellent low viscosity sealant) |
| Thread | nylon |
Reed Finishing
Reeds are finished with the following steps:
- tube is reamed and filed flat at the bottom
- tip opening is adjusted
- first wire tension is adjusted
- tip opening is adjusted
- seal is checked
- blades are gently kneaded
- reed is play-tested and adjusted as necessary
- tip is checked for cracks
The first wire is loosened just enough to allow vibration down to the second wire. (Note that when the reed is wet and ready to be played, the first wire is slightly loose. When the reed is dry, the first wire is looser.) Final blade length varies between 27.0 and 28.5 mm from the center of the first wire to the tip. The actual length depends on whether the result of play-testing requires tip trimming to achieve the desired response.
Play-Testing
Reeds are play-tested over the entire range of the bassoon with varying articulations and dynamics to ensure a controlled and flexible response. Additional finishing work is performed with any combination of blade scraping, tip-length adjustment, and first-wire adjustment to improve the playing characteristic and raise it to the Dynamic Reeds' standard. (Note that reeds will perform differently for differently players.) After reeds have been play-tested - minimum once for Student Reeds and three times for Advanced Reeds - they are cleaned with Sterisol and rinsed.
