ReedGeek Black Diamond G4

I bought this after seeing a couple of professional sax players rate this as their go to for reeds recovery rescue and prepare properly with maximum contact to the mouthpiece and the table, tip etc given a once over to suit your style of playing but also rescuing reeds you would have thrown away before.

First of all, I love the fact it comes in a small velvet pouch. It’s a small item so naturally you’d carry it in your case. However, if it fell onto a part of your instrument it could scratch or damage it. It’s these small things that add so much to first impressions on the Reed Geek.

So far I’ve used it on my Eb & Bb clarinet reeds. I’ve just shaved the back of the reed to maximise the contact with the mouthpiece and a couple of 2-3 passes on the sides of a couple of the reeds. I was stunned !!! The difference it made before and after was remarkable and I was totally converted to the ways of the Reed Geek from there. As I grow more confident and more knowledgeable about what part of the Reed Geek does to the reed and I become more confident too.

I’m conclusion, buy it. This will revolutionise your views on how to revive previously unusable reeds, make those that are useable even more playable and give them a massive boost to their contact and overall performance of them with your style too. If only these were available when I was previously seriously playing in my younger years, the number of reeds I could salvage would have been in the hundreds ……

Working on reeds with a blade to make them play better is a something of a "dark art" and not at all easy without instruction from a skilled teacher. Nevertheless for most of us reeds will frequently need improvement. Indeed many of are not only unskilled but can have a tendency to clumsiness. So one might consider looking at these gadgets. Obviously the big issue is the price. For me the two things that makes it worth the money are that (i) it to ruin a reed or to cut yourself you would to make a deliberate effort - hence this could well work out cheaper in the long run than a razor blade or sharp penknife & (ii) that this tool will work on a Silverstein synthetic reed.