About Fibracell

For over three decades, Fibracell has been revolutionizing the woodwind world with innovative synthetic reed technology that delivers consistent, professional-quality performance.

Our Mission

Fibracell was founded with a simple mission: to create a reed that would eliminate the frustrations musicians face with traditional cane reeds. After years of research and development, we pioneered a unique synthetic material that captures the warmth of cane while offering unprecedented consistency and durability.

Our reeds are crafted using advanced materials and precision manufacturing, resulting in a product that professional musicians, educators, and students trust worldwide. Each Fibracell reed undergoes rigorous quality control to ensure it meets our exacting standards.

Today, Fibracell reeds are played in concert halls, recording studios, classrooms, and practice rooms around the globe. By listening to the needs of the musical community, we are able to continue innovating and refining our products.

Fibracell reeds and saxophone - Professional synthetic reeds for woodwind instruments

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Our Story: From Frustrated Students to a Better Reed

The creator of the FIBRACELL® reed and founder of the MIRI Corporation was David Shaffer. Together with his wife Joyce, he began the journey to bring FIBRACELL reeds to market in 1993. Getting there however, was a long and demanding process that started decades earlier.

A Band Director with a Big Problem to Solve

Dave was first and foremost a musician and clarinetist who chose to become a music educator. He began teaching school band in Ohio in the 1950s and later moved to California. Early in his teaching career, he saw firsthand how much his students struggled with traditional cane reeds.

Every day he watched young woodwind players wrestle with reeds that were unreliable, fragile, and time-consuming to prepare. Students spent too much time:

Searching for a reed that worked
Wetting and adjusting it just to get a sound
Fussing with it during rehearsal
Accidentally damaging the reed tip and needing a replacement mid-practice

Dave wanted something better for them—an option that would let his students simply play, enjoy their instruments, and grow as musicians without being consistently frustrated with their reed. He knew that a better reed solution would benefit not only students, but also parents and school music programs.

The First Steps into Synthetic Reeds

Around 1965, as he finished his 15th year as a band director and music educator in California, Dave began working on composite reed materials. He initially collaborated with Arnold Brilliant on a synthetic oboe reed project and helped develop the machines and processes to produce a reed sold under the trade name Fibercane.

The Selmer Company, manufacturer of the Fibercane oboe reed, contracted Dave to hand-finish every reed. This allowed Selmer to offer a quality student oboe reed, and the relationship continued from 1966 until 2005, when diminished sales led MIRI Corporation to discontinue manufacturing the product.

Fibercane was primarily used by beginning and intermediate oboists and helped expand the market for Selmer's oboe sales. The material solved many of the problems associated with natural cane for students, but it still fell short of fully matching cane's performance and feel.

The Breakthrough: A New Kind of Composite

In 1971, Dave began experimenting with materials that could more closely emulate natural cane. He hand-molded experimental reeds for clarinet, oboe and bassoon using a new concept for the internal structure of the material. These early samples played and sounded noticeably better than Fibercane.

During this period, Dave produced a graph that demonstrated how the ratio of stiffness to specific gravity affects a composite's ability to vibrate at the same frequencies as natural cane. This comparison made it clear why the original Fibercane material could never fully match all the unique frequencies and all the playing qualities of natural cane.

Fascinated by the remarkable natural design of cured cane, Dave used the knowledge from these tests and experiments to develop a new "state of the art" approach to composite reed manufacturing. He applied for and was granted a patent describing this breakthrough.

Subsequent tests on his newly manufactured clarinet reeds produced overtones and stable third-octave response, even up to a double high C on a soft reed. For Dave, this was proof that a truly "perfect" reed material was possible.

Still, it took many more years of experimentation, failures, new formulas, the design of custom machines and procedures before the material was ready for the marketplace.

The Launch of FIBRACELL®

In 1993, the first FIBRACELL reeds were introduced at the NAMM Show. The technology behind FIBRACELL's composite material is described in detail in the patent and continues to be protected through proprietary formulas, processes, production techniques, custom machinery and confidentiality agreements.

Unlike natural cane which must be farmed, harvested, cured, transported, and then processed through multiple steps before becoming a reed, FIBRACELL reeds are created and manufactured in a single facility in the United States.

Despite the cane industry's best efforts to remain competitive. Natural cane is affected by climate and farming conditions. Causing reeds to wear out quickly and many to be discarded entirely

FIBRACELL reeds, by contrast:

Are manufactured entirely in the U.S.
Last up to six times longer than a typical cane reed
Are recognized worldwide as one of the most cane-like synthetic composite reeds available

Continuing Dave's Legacy

When Dave Shaffer passed away on February 14, 2016, his vision and legacy lived on. The MIRI Corporation continues to manufacture and market FIBRACELL reeds to musicians around the globe.

Today, Joyce Shaffer serves as MIRI Corporation's President & CEO, overseeing all domestic and international business. Under her leadership, the company remains committed to the mission that started it all: giving musicians a reliable, cane-like reed that lets them focus on making music.

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