Vintage Reeds From A Local Music Store

You never know where you’ll find a stash of vintage reeds

Last week I was in our local mom & pop music store to pick up some stuff I had ordered for one of my students. While there, I decided to see what kind of reeds they had. Truth be told, my reed supply is probably already close to that of many a small music store, but hey, you never know what you’ll find…

As it turns out, I was really lucky that day, as my friend who works there pulled out an old box of reeds that they keep in the back. These cane reeds pre-date the current store, and were part of the inventory of Dewit’s Music.

Dewit’s Music was a mom & pop-run music store in Abbotsford back when I was school. I took guitar lessons from their daughter back in the day, and went to high school with their son—who himself was a trumpet player. Although not a source for band instruments, Dewit’s was a local place to buy reeds and accessories for your school horns.

When the Dewit family sold the store a little over 20 years, the current owner bought it, and King’s Music was born. Twenty years on, King’s is doing well, and holding its own in the face of competition from the big chains.

The reed selection that King’s currently has is more than adequate for the students in the area. As a matter of fact, their selection is probably good enough to cater to most intermediate players, and many pros as well—it depends entirely on what you’re looking for.

Given that my tastes tend to run a bit on the obscure side—although not nearly as obscure as some—I didn’t hold out a whole lot of hope that they would have what I was looking for. Although I was lucky, and did find a box of tenor reeds to try out, I never imagined that I would leave the store with all of these vintage cane gems from 20+ years ago…

Four of the 6 boxes of these vintage reeds are unopened. The top box of clarinet reeds is no longer originally sealed. However, it contains way more than the 4 reeds indicated on the box top. I haven’t counted them, but there are at least 10 or more in the box. Given how little I play clarinet, I suspect the three boxes pictured will be a life-time supply for me. 👿

The other box that has been opened, is the Rico brown box for C melody. I haven’t counted the remaining reeds in it, but at most 4 or 5 are missing from the box. I wonder when those reeds were sold, and how old that box is? Although my Runyon C melody MP does take tenor reeds, I do have an original C mel MP kicking around. I’ve never used it since I’ve never had any reeds. Problem solved!

We know cane ages well, and some prefer vintage reeds because of this. The question is, does plastic-coated cane age well too? Do the Rico Plasticover reeds from 20-40 years ago play better than the ones of today?

Mmm… Good question. I wonder if I can answer that.

Since I have had little joy in finding a synthetic replacement for my older Fibracell baritone reeds—IMHO the ones made in the last 10 or so years are shite—I have switched back to Rico Plasticover. I have been buying new ones, but I do have older ones that I bought 20 or so years ago. (You know, the ones in the silver box.)

What I should do is test some of the new ones compared to these older, silver box ones I have. I certainly would love to come across a bunch of white boxes of Rico Plasticover for bari in 2½ and 3. Sadly, that has not happened in my travels.

Mom & pop stores are incredibly important to the musical community

I know I sound like a broken record, but seriously, support your local mom & pop stores. Besides being a possible source for vintage stuff from days gone by, they provide valuable services to the community. Let me try to explain…

Sure ordering online can be convenient, and the selection can be greater. But let me ask you something: How often have you received something that was either: 1. The wrong item, or 2. Broken?

Given how infrequently I order online, it is quite shocking how frequently I get the wrong stuff sent to me.

The advantage with dealing with a local store is that if something arrives broken, they deal with it. If the wrong item arrives, again, they deal with it.

Returns can be a hassle, and if you’ve ordered from a place online, you’re the one stuck dealing with the company’s return policy. Furthermore, there’s no guarantee that the replacement won’t be broken or wrong again either.

On a more immediate level, the possibility always exists that something breaks just before your show. Maybe a pedal craps out. Maybe a cord frays. Perhaps you lost your box of reeds. Or maybe you need an emergency repair.

Without a mom & pop shop in your community, you won’t have a place to go to get what you need in an emergency. Sure, a large chain can offer stuff as well, but as we’re seeing lately with large, non-music-related chain stores here in Canada, they are not immune to loss of revenue from online shopping.

Online shopping through places like Amazon and WWBW, seriously put a dent in the bottom line of retail stores everywhere. If you don’t support your local shops, where are you going to go when you desperately need something NOW?

Food for thought as you go to order your next box of reeds… Or your next ligature… Or key oil, cork grease, cleaning swabs, books, etc, etc…