Review of the Reed Geek Reed Adjusting Tool
This is a video review of a very interesting and exciting relatively new reed adjusting tool for saxophone known as the Reed Geek (no, really?). If you can get past my awkwardness on camera, you’ll heard what I believe to be a noticeable difference in the sound of the reed after I spent just a few minutes working on a crappy stuffy reed.
A few things to keep in mind:
- The reed actually sounded better at one point than what you hear in the “after” clip of me playing. I screwed it up after shaving down the rails too much, so keep in mind that with some practice, I suspect that you can definitely get a much more dramatic effect than what I got.
- You’ll notice in my “after” clip, I’m playing a little bit louder, but I attribute that 100% to the fact that since a nice chunk of the stuffiness was gone, I was inspired to blow a bit more freely. That said, I was playing at a very similar level in both clips, and both clips had me playing a bit on the quiet side due to the neighbor situation in our condo. (I still need to introduce myself and get their OK on my loud horn blowin’, hence my soft playing in the meantime.)
- I was not paid by Reed Geek for this review, and I warned them ahead of time that this would be an honest review and most certainly not meant to be a simple advertisement for their product.
Dave Erato
September 27, 2011 @ 11:13 am
So true on the TSA. I’ve had a reed knife taken away back in 2002. But somehow my cast iron sax stand was ok.
Either event, great review. I’ll be sure to check it out. I haven’t done much in reed care since leaving college. I’m only now getting back into it, only sanding the backs on stiffer reeds.
Last thought on playing near neighbors. A retired trumpet friend of mine recently moved into a condo. He’s told me he wrote a letter and delivered to his neighbors, introducing himself as a musician, and that he will be practicing during normal waking hours, and that they should feel free to call if there are any issues. Granted he plays rather softly, but still a good idea.
Doron Orenstein
September 27, 2011 @ 11:28 am
Glad you liked the review Dave! As for the neighbors, that sounds like a good approach actually. I’m thinking of doing that plus getting a sax mute. I also want to see if our condo’s community room could work as a place to practice.
Bill Plake
September 27, 2011 @ 5:42 pm
Thanks for that Doron! I was waiting for you to review this seemingly useful tool. It’s easy to hear the difference in your sound after you made the adjustments. Your sound became somewhat brighter (not at all in a negative way) and lively, and it sounded as if the reed was responding a bit quicker. That said, I also liked your sound before. It was a little more “dead” and dark, but I sort of liked that (it reminded me a bit of Jimmy Giuffre’s sound, which I love). But I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that it made it easier to produce your sound, and that it made you enjoy playing more. To me, that’s what a good reed primarily does (as well as allows me to have better intonation). Could you comment a little more about ease of use of the product, learning curve, clarity of instructions, etc. It appears that it doesn’t take much skill to use it, but I was just wondering.
Doron Orenstein
September 27, 2011 @ 10:14 pm
Thanks so much for the kudos Bill, so glad you found the review helpful. I also appreciate (as always) your great insights on the intuitive creation of music. I personally like playing with a bit of a brighter sound. Although the reed sounded a lot better to me once shaved it down a bit, it would have required more work, or possibly another reed for it to sound as good as a reed that sounded killer right out of the box. But the point here is the improvement. So basically a pretty good reed could hypothetically turn into an awesome reed.
As for the ease of use, it’s hard for me to assess how easy to use it since, like I mentioned in the video, I have pretty much zero experience and therefore am not aware of what potential benefit I could be gaining from the tool that I haven’t been able to glean upon first glance.
That said, I found the directions to be quite straightforward, but the topic of working with reeds seems like an art form deserving of an entire book, so the instructions are more of a “quick start” guide – but a helpful one at that.
It definitely doesn’t take much skill to use the tool, since I am not naturally adept at working with my hands and was probably pretty sloppy with the work I did. In fact, there was some footage that I didn’t include (for fear of instilling bad habits in those watching) where I was using the Reed Geek very awkwardly, not knowing how to hold the reed while shaving it down.
Like I mentioned in the video as well, a lot of thought and experience went into creating this product. I had the privilege of speaking on the phone to Mauro, the founder of the company. He was very passionate as he described the very thorough thought process behind Reed Geek.
At any rate, overall, I’d say it’s pretty easy to improve your reeds using this tool.
james huggins
October 4, 2011 @ 7:48 am
hello doran,i been using a razor blade on my reeds for years.doing same thing as the reedgeek.the price is to high.for something like that $38.00 for that.when you can use a razor blade.this is a rip off.i don,t mean you.but wow man.jas.huggins
Doron Orenstein
October 4, 2011 @ 9:42 am
I suppose that you could do a lot of the same things with a razor blade, but the Reed Geek has a few different edges made specifically for certain parts of the reed, so I imagine that reed geek might be better for a novice reed worker such as myself. The other nice thing is that you can bring a reed geek on a plane easier than a razor blade.
That said, I haven’t tried using just a razor blade, so perhaps that would work too. I guess you never know until you try.
Thanks!
Monica Shriver
April 3, 2012 @ 4:15 pm
Thanks Doron! As someone who shaves reeds with a pocket knife (which I can’t bring on a plane either) this might be a better tool. Thanks for the review!
Doron Orenstein
April 3, 2012 @ 7:03 pm
Glad you liked it Monica! My guess is that this would work quite a bit better than your pocket knife. :)
Mia
October 15, 2012 @ 10:53 am
Thanks Doron for posting this video! I’m a clarinetist and all of the videos I’ve seen on youtube about ReeD Geek don’t give a demo of what the reed sounds like after you make the adjustments! Listening to your sound before and after you used the tool really convinced me that it is a “must have” tool for myself! I’m just curious though…by using it does it help to extend the overall life of your reeds and how do your reeds play from day to day once you continue removing material from them after the first day?? Do you find yourself having to adjust them daily because they warp very often?? Looking forward to your response. Thanks again!
Doron Orenstein
October 15, 2012 @ 8:32 pm
Hello Mia,
Glad you liked the video! As for the life span of the reed being increased, I personally haven’t seen a difference in the life span of the reed, nor with the reed’s tendency to warp. Admittedly, I have grown a bit lazy with regards to working with reeds, and being that my time to practice these days is limited, I’d rather spend my time practicing than working with reeds. :-)
So if the fear of loss of life span or the fear of warping is keeping you from picking one of these up, I’d say go for it and your reeds should be much better for it.
I hope that helps!
Doron
Jim Kroll
April 5, 2013 @ 9:20 am
The reed geek works well but its not much more than a high speed steel tool bit. You can get them from any industrial supply company MSC supply for instance part # 02603249 for a 3/8″x3/8″ x3″ for $1.67 it wont have the radius ground on one end but if you have access to a grinder thats a easy fix.
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