Hi

I was just wondering where all you oboists get your reeds from and whether you buy them from shops or make them yourselves.

I normally get my reeds from my teacher who makes his own and charges £5.50 which isnt bad compared to shop ones. Also he can alter them for me if need be. The only problem is is that he re uses the corks and some of them are very battered. I have had a few that I bought before. These have mainly been Marque reeds.

My oboe teacher also makes my reeds and reuses the staples. As long as the part of the cork that fits in the oboe is not chipped (ie it seals properly) it doesn't matter if the top part looks a bit shabby, or even if it is cut down shorter than it was when it was new.
I am attempting to learn to make my own reeds but haven't got that much spare time and would rather spend the time I have playing than making reeds. I hope that in the summer holidays I will be able to find enough time to work at reed-making properly.

My teacher supplies me with reeds too. Sometimes she makes them herself, but she usually orders them from her friend as she's generally too busy to make them. She charges £10 per reed, but that's money well spent as they are always really good and she'll fiddle with them as much as I need to get them working well

The current lot of reeds I've bought from a shop (I was just getting going again)...when I need to get some more I'm going to try a man in Scotland (Inverness-shire) whom my previous teacher recommended. The reeds that I had from him, a few years ago admittedly, were quite good.
At the moment I'm teacher-less, as I've moved from the South West up to NE Yorks (cold but great!) which is a bit of bind as my teacher always used to fiddle with my reeds to make them better.
Now I will have to take my courage (and knife) in both hands and have a go myself.

Speaking of reeds, the cork on one of my reeds has just split...is it ok to tape it up with magic-tape or is it defunct???

Also...if you ask for a staple to be recaned it's cheaper, so hang on to the staples.

At one time I used to get all of mine from Howarth because I could go to the shop and work my way through entire batches of them, picking out the ones I wanted to buy. Roy Carter now makes a few reeds specially for me, which means I don't have to stand in Howarths for an hour each month trying out loads of reeds and only buying two.

I'd like to be able to make my own, but the scraping takes lots and lots of practice to learn properly. That in itself can lead to an awful lot of waste - both in time and reeds - when you first start.

It depends where it's split. If it is the top part (ie above where it fits into the oboe) just cut it off neatly, all the way round and put some clear nail varnish on the cut edge to stop it splitting/fraying further. If it it is the part that actually fits into the oboe then (according to my teacher who reuses staples until they "die") there is nothing that can be done.

Thanks kerioboe
It's split at the top so I'll do what you suggest...just as well it's not my best reed.