{"id":87,"date":"2012-05-03T20:27:57","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T20:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/?page_id=87"},"modified":"2019-03-17T17:26:48","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T17:26:48","slug":"box","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/my-way\/box\/","title":{"rendered":"Box!?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My reed box!?<\/h2>\n
\n

\"Vodka\"<\/p>\n

An unusual reed box?<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

For over 25 years I have kept my bassoon reeds in a Coleman’s mustard jar. What looks like water is in fact vodka and the reeds stay permanently in that until they come out to play.<\/p>\n

Advantages:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Reeds are wet and ready to play.<\/li>\n
  2. Reeds get washed clean.<\/li>\n
  3. Reeds last longer.<\/li>\n
  4. Vodka tastes nice.<\/li>\n
  5. Reed bottles come cheap.<\/li>\n
  6. Playing in different humidities doesn’t cause problems.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Disadvantages:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Vodka needs changing every few weeks.<\/li>\n
    2. Vodka isn’t cheap.<\/li>\n
    3. Reeds go darker as they get more waterlogged.<\/li>\n
    4. The string binding on some reeds leaks dye into the vodka (I use heat shrink plastic for binding).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      When I first tried it out I thought that the reeds might get damaged in the jar. I have not yet had so much as a chip off a corner. The jar goes in my bassoon case in any orientation and I haven’t had any leaks or broken jars yet. I became more convinced of it’s usefulness after a tour in the USA where my colleagues were suffering from their reeds misbehaving and even cracking in the Californian climate when mine were the same as usual.<\/p>\n

      As the reed gets more waterlogged they get flatter in pitch, so I cut the tip off and scrape the tip a little. They usually end up 2mm shorter than when I first start playing on them.<\/p>\n

      My oldest reed has been in my jar now for 10 years but it gets tired quickly these days. The last pieces I played on it were Brahms Violin Concerto and Strauss Four Last Songs when it was 7 or 8 years old! If you have played those pieces you will know what sort of a reed is needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      My reed box!? An unusual reed box? For over 25 years I have kept my bassoon reeds in a Coleman’s mustard jar. What looks like water is in fact vodka and the reeds stay permanently in that until they come …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-87","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1658,"href":"https:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/87\/revisions\/1658"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnschroder.co.uk\/js\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}