Contra Bass Clarinet Reed

thingiverse

I printed several thicknesses of Contrabass Clarinet reeds for testing. I used Jayo white PLA and a JGmaker Artist-D printer. I have a PEI sheet on the bed which gives a nice flat reed bottom. This is my basic CBC reed design: w_but = 18; // width at root w_tip = 20; // width at tip L = 88.5; // overall length d_but = 3.25; // thickness at root d_tip = 0.35; // thickness at tip shape = 5; // steepness belly = .5; // belly-ness (shape*belly ~ vamp length control) tip_rad = 4; // tip roundness I made d_tip from .25 (too soft), .30, .35, .40. I made one .35 with belly=.7 for a shorter vamp (too stiff). (Not sure what all belly and shape do yet.) Except for layer thickness and temperatures, I used the original Print Settings suggestions. I use 220C/60C for the Jayo PLA. I also used .15 mm for the first layer and .1 mm after that. Had ~30 min print time. I printed a .35 with .10/.05 layers as suggested. 60 min print time. I did that one in Ttyd3D Gold Silk PLA which is stunning to look at. I did minimal sanding to knock off my Random Z nubs. I trimmed the ends with my reed trimmer. [BTW, I had a lot of trouble getting my dotSCAD library in the right place to work. In Win10 it must be adjacent to openscad.exe is located. The “libraries” folder needs to be there but can be empty.] I use my own 3D printed CBC mouthpieces and ligatures (see MojoMP.com for photos and Youtube for play test). All of these reeds responded great! But the tone is edgy and buzzy. Legeres sound much clearer. Fiberreds also clearer. I find cane reeds too chirpy to use. I’m not sure if there is a way to adjust the shape and belly parameters to get a darker clearer sound. I may try it again after some study. It just may be the sound of PLA. See Youtube for play test vs other reeds: https://youtu.be/4SVctxlUopc If you bring up the Description on YouTube, you can click on the times listed to jump around to the beginning of each reed play test.