The Fiberreed Story

Franko Bean
May 24, 2020
3 min read

Updated: Jun 16, 2021

An Epic Tale of Synthetic Reed Innovation

I partnered with Harry Hartmann and Fiberreed in 2013. I left Theo Wanne instruments to my twin brother Theo after running it for 10 years as CEO and co-founder. It was an amazing experience. I was excited to use my experience and music industry network to consult other companies as well as build a distribution business.

Integral Business Development and The Wedge Distribution were born. My first consulting partner was Fiberreed. I'm integrated into all aspects of the Fiberreed business including comprehensive business planning and the execution of strategies. It continues to be a very successul, fun, and rewarding partnership.

I look forward to many more wonderful years working hand in hand with Harry and Fiberreed. The origins and growth of Fiberreed have been fascinating and innovative. I put together this visual story book to share the epic tale . Enjoy!

Harry first got the idea for Fiberreeds at a gig with his band in the early 80s, envisioning a reed made just like natural cane with cross-woven hollow fibers and cellular support. Harry began R&D soon after. The Black Rubber reed was deveoped.

After Harry split with Dieter Hahn in 1996, Harry wanted to improve the reed. With some ideas in mind, Harry began development of The Yellow Rubber Reed.

EARLY ADOPTERS, FRIENDS, AND AMAZING LEGENDARY MUSICIANS:

Legend Bobby Watson, "It is the closest to wood I have ever played! I'm blown away!"

Legend Archie Shepp, "Immensely helpful to me. I highly recommend it."

The darker the shade of yellow, the harder the rubber, allowing more vibrations to transfer to the sound. The idea was to have a support on the reed that had the functionality of a good ligature but would be delivered with the reed, enabling the player to fine tune the way the reed plays with a variety of different yellow pads.

EARLY ADOPTERS, FRIENDS, AND AMAZING LEGENDARY MUSICIANS:

Legend Rolf Kühn, "I can always rely on my Fiberreed clarinet reeds!"

Legend Bill Saxton, "Fiberreed has a pure woodwind sound. My search is over!"

The Natural and Carbon Fiberreeds were introduced at the same time in 1999. They sported cool, vibrant boxes.

On the left is a German news article on Harry from the late 1990's showing focused research on Fiberreeds. Harry still spends a tremendous amount of time on research and development. The new (at the time) Natural and Carbon Fiberreeds are displayed with the older Yellow-Rubber reed in this 2001 WWBW ad.

In 2003, a new box was developed to show off the very unique and beautiful, hand-crafted reeds. The Carbon reed has remained Fiberreed's most popular reed since its introduction. Although, the Hemp and Onyx reeds will give it a good race for first in the future.

The Classic Cut Fiberreeds have a warm sound. Their strengthened heart with a steeper angle of the cut makes them perfect for the “Vintage” player and for classic mouthpieces with smaller openings. Even sound and easy response throughout the entire register.

The Hemp reed was developed using 80% organic material, providing a darker and earthy sound. The Hemp reed was released in 2014. It was instantly very popular and battles with our Carbon reed for the most popular Fiberreed.

Materials for Music is better than Hard Rubber and Customizable. Fine tune your color, dimensions, transparency and additives such as carbon, copper, and hard wood. Great for clarinet saxophone and trumpet mouthpieces. Wonderful for instrument parts as well, including saxophone, clarinet, guitar and trumpet. Switch from hard rubber to Fiberrod! Allow Fiberreed to customize Fiberrod, Fiberplate, and custom molds for you!

The Onyx was introduced in 2018 and uses Fiberreed’s own FiberPlate materials. This hi-tech reed is the best value synthetic available! Lots of reed for the money! Easy attack with a warm low register and a powerful second and third octave. Very easy to play high notes.

The Copper Carbon Classic, released at NAMM 2020, is infused with copper and carbon. The bigger heart of the Classic cut presents a full-bodied, fat lower register and overall warm tone. Like the Carbon Onyx, the Copper Carbon Classic also makes the high range and altissimo easy to play.

New and exciting products are always under development. Innovation is an important core value of Fiberreed. Stay tuned! The story will continue... Cheers, Tom Wanne