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About UsAt Mechlin Reeds, we take care of you, so you can take care of the music.
We make instrument supports to alleviate aches and pains from doing what you love. It doesn't matter if you're a beginner or a seasoned performer. We do things a little differently here. You'll notice that we don't offer a gazillion options. We like to keep it simple - you tell us what you're looking for, we connect you to the right solution. Tell us where it hurts- we can help! All of our products are made in the USA. |
OUR HISTORY |
After several years of making reeds for other oboists on campus at the University of Michigan, Kate Eakin started Mechlin Reeds in 2004, as a way to pay for grad school.
Since then, Mechlin Reeds has grown to provide reeds tailored to individual needs for musicians all over the US, Canada, and Europe. With the launch of All Thumbs REST in 2012, the company expanded into ergonomic instrument supports, saving oboe and clarinet players everywhere from tendonitis and other performance-related ailments. In 2015, we welcomed the patent-pending Weightless Winds, designed to relieve neck and back pain for woodwind instrumentalists of all sorts. A version of Weightless Winds for larger instruments is in the works. |
WHO MAKES THIS STUFF, ANYWAY?
KATE, owner and product designer, is the former oboist/English hornist of the US Air Forces in Europe Band and its woodwind quintet, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. She currently performs with the Battle Creek Symphony and Rockford Symphony.
Kate has traveled a ways from her native Louisiana to make music, including a BM at the University of Michigan, MM at McGill University in Montréal, teaching at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Palestine, and a season with the Orquesta de la UANL in Monterrey, Mexico, in addition to extensive touring in Central and South America. After five fabulous freelance years in Chicago, Kate joined the Air Force Band at Scott AFB near St Louis, prior to assignment in Germany. Both Kate and the shop moved back to Chicago in 2018.
Kate has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony, New World Symphony, and Chicago Civic Orchestra. Her previous contracts include da Corneto Opera, Millennium Chamber Players new music ensemble, Quad City Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, and the Peoria Symphony.
Kate has previously served on the faculties of the Sherwood Conservatory of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Her teachers include E. Earnest Harrison, Nancy Ambrose King, Alexa Zirbel, Pierre Plante, Merrill Greenberg, and Grover Schiltz.
RAYMOND, seamster extraordinaire, sews Weightless Winds.
When he's not doing that, he makes custom church vestments, altar pieces, and all manner of fabric art. He also makes some pretty awesome quilts, which you can check out here: http://nachograndmasquilts.com/category/news/
DANIELLE assembles All Thumbs REST and helps out behind the scenes. She's otherwise a very busy mother of four.