I was reading that Baroque oboes were originally reeded with Cane from the Var region of France. I’ve never heard great stuff about French cane, but am interested to try it just to say I’ve tried it. Anyone know a source or have a little blim I could scrounge?
Alan
You could try this,
www.allbassooncane.com
Esko
edit
That may be true for wet-blown reeds, but I don’t know about dry reeds. The French cane used in GHB reeds is softer, whiter, and at least when wetted, the grain swells up and the outside cut areas (in the GHB case, all of the blade) without bark get very coarse and woody. You end up making shorter, narrower reeds that are “sweeter” and in GHB cases usually higher pitched, where the Spanish cane is yellower, harder, more fine grained, swells less when wet, and is used for wider bladed reeds that flatten grass on the field.
But those are probably general observations and the real range in either French or Spanish cane I think overlaps a bit.
Royce