Newbie Reed Review

Right to left: - Custom Reed from my instructor - “soft” reed from billys bassoon reeds - “medium” reed from billys - Eastman soft reed - Bocal Majority Reed (modded) #2 - flesher Hinton Reed

So I’m a beginner and have been working on my embouchre for about 1.5 months. I ordered these reeds from best (right) to absolute worst (left). The red/red on the right is the best by far. Responsive, full-throated, with the perfect amount of resistance. It works great at all the registers I play regularly (C2 to G3 rn). The only complaint is that it vibrates my lips so much that I have to take breaks between passages. Still figuring that part out, but it sounds GREAT.

The two reeds from Billy’s are brand new. One got damaged in shipping and requires some fixing. Both butts are perfectly round and they seem good but squawk at lower register and I’m still working through that. Jury is still out but I like them, for the most part.

The black Eastman Reed was a pleasant surprise. It was my second Reed ever and I expected it to be trash. It was actually pretty good out of the box and only gets unpredictable at louder volumes.

The pink Reed is from bocalmajority. It’s a #2 and was great to get started but also came with some dark spots which was disconcerting. It plays pretty well but the butt wasn’t even or round and the spots were a bummer.

The last Reed is absolute trash. I don’t even know what else to say. I can barely play it.

I am reading Christopher Weait’s book on bassoon Reed making and it’s bonkers how much of a difference the Reed makes. Any other brands I should try?