I'm often very cautious about spending money on myself, but whenever I have invested in my business I've never regretted it. So, when the recent stimulus money came through, I thought it was time for a serious upgrade!
(This post may get a little technical, as my inner reed geek is released)
One of the much talked-about aspects among oboists of making oboe reeds (other than how difficult it can be) is gouging. Gouging is the step when cane has already been split, and now needs to be made thin enough to work with. Of course, like everything else about the oboe, absolute precision is a MUST. When we talk about how thick a piece of cane is gouged, we're talking in MICROMETERS.
I was not taught how to gouge cane in school. Agreed, I had an unorthodox education, but at that time my teachers felt that gouging was just another tedious step, and that it was easier to simply buy cane that had already been gouged. But, almost a decade ago, I began to find it harder and harder to purchase gouged cane that met my needs. Enter my first gouging machine!
This is an elderly RDG gouger (made by RDG Woodwinds). It was a great gouger to learn on, and experiment with. Buying this machine used made it much more affordable (gougers are not cheap) and gave me the freedom to explore how I could change the gouge, and how that affected my reeds.
But, as this was an elderly gouger almost a decade ago, it is starting to wear out. The springs that hold its clips in place have rusted to the point of simply dissolving into little piles of dust. Plus, I wanted to explore the much discussed double-radius gouge. Diving into the super technical technicalities, a single-radius gouge simply carves out a gully right down the middle of the cane. A double-radius gouge, however, carves two overlapping gullies, one to each side, so there is a slightly thicker middle and thinner sides. (I said this would get technical...let the inner reed geek reign!)
Fortunately, it's easy to purchase cane gouged on a particular machine, kind of like a test-drive of the gouge. So the grand experiment for the past few weeks has been trying multiple types of pre-gouged cane, and deciding which gouge works for me. Double-radius definitely won out, in particular a gouger made by Pierre Roy, and as a bonus I now have a REED SURPLUS!!!
I've ordered the new machine, and should be getting it some time next week. In the meantime, I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve. I keep revisiting Pierre Roy's site and drooling over the shiny new gougers. Once I actually get the machine, I will have more pics and possibly videos. As I said before, I wasn't taught how to gouge cane, and I've turned to YouTube for a lot of my gouging questions. I'd love to contribute to that forum, and maybe help other oboists experimenting with the gouge, seeking that elusive "perfect reed."
Comments