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With D’Addario Learn & Earn, we share some interesting D'Addario facts, then ask you a few questions to test your knowledge. Every quiz you complete will get you 50 Player Circle points and that much closer to taking home D’Addario products.
Reeds may seem like simple little pieces of wood, but there are intricacies to reeds which affect how they play—and D’Addario takes pride in designing those intricacies. We even built our own machinery to create the most precise and consistent reeds available, so you know every reed is the finest it can possibly be, right out of the box.
Reeds have three main parts: the tip, the vamp, and the heart. The tip impacts the response of the reed, with thinner tips providing a more immediate response. The vamp is the part of the reed without bark. Longer vamps increase tonal nuance and flexibility; shorter vamps have more focus. The heart is at the center of the vamp and gives the reed its tone and color.
Reed “strength” is a measurement of the reed’s flexibility. Commonly, you’ll see strength options as numerical values, such as 1 through 5, with lower numbers being more flexible and higher numbers being stiffer. To be clear, a strength 5.0 reed is no thicker than a 2.5 reed. The cane that produced the 5.0 reed is simply stiffer than the cane that produced the 2.5. You may also see strength expressed as “soft, medium, and hard” or some combination of those words and numbers.
You may not notice it at first, but some reeds have a slight distinction at the vamp. Reeds that are filed have a very straight vamp, while unfiled reeds have a vamp edge which has a “U” shape. Practically, filed reeds brighten the sound for darker sounding mouthpieces.
Reeds are traditionally made from a plant called “Arundo Donax,” which is commonly known as giant cane. Though commonly referred to as wood, it’s technically a type of grass. Synthetic reeds by contrast are traditionally created with man-made materials to increase durability and ensure they’re not affected by changes in temperature or humidity. D’Addario VENN reeds, combine synthetic elements like polymer fibers and resin with natural cane, delivering the durability benefits of a synthetic, with the sound and playability of natural cane.
