Sad but true

At the risk of stealing oboeinsight's frequent modus operandi, I post today about the continuing misery provided to me courtesy of my reeds. It is a sad fact that my best reed today, my number one, numero uno, ichiban, is actually the reed I used on my Miller Theater concert back on February 16. Since then, I've been through many boxes--probably something like ten--but I keep coming back to this reed. (It has been clipped twice.) I played it for my U of A interview, and I used it for the remaining American Voices recording sessions. I guess this attests to the amazing quality of this particular reed. Every once in a while I find one like this. And it's a blessing. However, although this reed is amazing, what about the nearly one hundred other reeds that I've attempted to break in since then? It's ridiculous. There is a huge quality control issue at Vandoren.