Wonder if anyone can shed a little light on reed types. Salpa, for instance, has hand made and hand finnished. It's my understanding that because of technology, hand made isn't the same as what it once meant, in terms of production. Is there really a significant difference in quaity, and are you able to hear a difference between types? Or is it more that hand made was the tradition?
Steve
In my recent experience and in talking to other players the best quality are hand made (which does use some machinery) and the lowest quality are machine made with a middle quality being hand finished tipo a mano(TAM). The hand made and TAM are generally better as they can get the air gaps to finer tolerances, this means the reeds need less air to speak (faster response) and give you greater control on volume and waste less air. In my opinion good quality TAM reeds are virtually as good as many hand made.
If I could afford it I'd go for at least TAM reeds but prefer hand made.