Gouged Bassoon Cane (10pcs)
Precision-gouged 120mm bassoon cane, ready to be shaped and profiled. Hardness tested to eliminate the ends of the cane hardness bell curve by removing the softest and hardest outliers of cane, thus increasing your yield of successful reeds.
Sold in bundles of 10.
What makes our cane different?
Consistent gouging, hardness testing, and attention spent to proper splitting of the tube are areas where you will notice a difference in the consistency and quality of your finished reeds. While some cane suppliers may produce as much cane as possible, as quickly as possible, we actually eliminate between 20-30% of our pieces on average to provide you with the best statistical likelihood for successful finished reeds. This is the exact same cane that I'm using to make my own reeds to play principal bassoon in a full-time professional orchestra.
What is hardness testing (and why does it matter?)
Hardness testing is a procedure that uses a small piece of equipment to place an indentation in a piece of cane using a calibrated weight. The machine then measures the distance that the weight was able to travel, and the readings are interpreted that more distance traveled = softer cane, and less distance traveled = harder cane.
In my own reed-making, I have found that the hardness tester results are often the greatest indicator of finding consistency in reeds and predicting the statistical outcome of a reed. Note that no reading means guaranteed success, but I have found that reeds with certain hardness ranges have a greater statistical likelihood of producing a great reed versus other ranges, which could be more statistically likely to produce a poor reed.
There is an argument to be made that eliminating pieces of cane based on hardness is potentially throwing away good reeds - and while this is absolutely true - I have found that increasing my likelihood of a good piece of cane means spending less time at the reed desk, less time throwing away finished reeds that don't make the cut, and more time that I can spend actually playing my instrument, or just doing things that make me happy! In my own experience, eliminating as much as 20-30% of my cane through hardness testing can often double my chances of getting a good reed in the end. I'm happy with the sacrifice.
Readings may not be the same from hardness tester to hardness tester, but they are often proportional to one another. For my hardness tester, with the exception of a few anomalies, most cane falls within the range of 7 (extremely hard) to 20 (extremely soft). I use cane that falls within the range of 9 to 14, and unapologetically toss the rest. I've found that this range works really well for me, and I am passing that on to you as well in our selection of the gouged cane that we offer. If you see a little divot about the size of a ballpoint pen's head, that's where the cane has been tested!
What is "proper tube splitting", and who cares?
A tube of cane is not perfectly round, and is most frequently elliptical in nature when viewed from the end. By taking time to identify the apexes of the ellipse's curves, and taking efforts to align that with the center of each piece of cane (where the spine of the reed will be), you are making it more likely to have a symmetrical tip opening on your finished reed. This small step makes a big difference, and can easily be overlooked by commercial suppliers of cane who may be trying to gouge as much cane as possible, as quickly as possible, to meet their demands. Before splitting each piece of tube cane, I take a moment to observe the natural structure of the cane and make my best efforts to split it accordingly.
Where do you source your cane from?
Our gouged cane comes from a variety of sources and vintages. I will most often continue to gouge cane that I am enjoying playing on and having personal luck with at the moment. While I do not take requests for specific sources or vintages, I am happy to answer any questions about what gouged cane you have purchased from us and to discuss all of the wonderful subtleties that exist from region-to-region in the wide world of Arundo Donax! (that's the cane species)