As (primarily) a double reed player, this discussion has a...surreal.. overtone :0
"vintage reeds" to me, means that someone has found an 1880's shaker chair at a flea market, and has proceeded to work some of the cane used for the seat.
ruined "a few" reeds, means to me, a 5 gallon bucket full of split, gouged, and otherwise folded, spindled, and mutilated splinters of once- proudly-growing-in-a-sunny-mediteranean-seaside-bog arundo donax
[huge fire hazard, btw]
"fiber reeds" means to me, #6 plastic cups from 7-11, taco bell, or jack-in-the-box, cut &tied onto a staple. [Altho I havent checked it out,
in person....I strongly suspect "fiber single reeds" are plain old #6 slips thatve been worked down to the correct profile. ]Proper sanding can really put a realistic, veinous, cellular feel on the reed's surface. Its tough to get #6 thats thick enough to do that, at a consumer level.
When I played primarily clar & sax, vandorens, rico's & luries came in boxes by the dozen with maybe a tissue or piece of foam at the tips. Individual reeds came in a cardboard pocket. Soon, everything began to be individually wrapped. Sure, sometimes there was a dud, or an improperly aged pink one, but a few days in direct sunlight generally sorted it out...
I bought my first sax reeds in 29 years this past week. and they were all individually wrapped in hermetically sealed bags; wrapper, within wrapper, within wrapper.
It seemed a bit of overkill to me, to present reeds in such manner. there are so many changes they can go through once unwrapped and used. 'Wrapped at the ideal RH " means to me, that they have at best a 50/50 chance of survival in the real life demands of rapid drastic RH changes.
Ive found that the reeds which last the longest, are the ones that go through the most difficult births. Often enduring weeks, or months before they are acceptable for public consumption; but then they sing for years. Its not uncommon to find pipe reeds that are 10, 20, even 40 years old. We;ve yet to find out how long the useful life of a #6 composite reed really is, on average.
What does this have to do with your vintage reed question? Its not so much that reed 'quality' has degenerated; certainly mfg techniques& tolerances have been drastically improved; but rather that consumer demand was low enough to allow cane to sufficently age before production, (this is why the cellular density is higher in the 70's laVoz's) , cane growers perhaps even planting 'short term' crops in the 80's to increase profit margins...
but also that consumer expectation has risen--Personally, old-school me would rather buy a dozen cheaper, ill-packed reeds with the foreknowledge that three, maybe four will be useful, and one just *might* be
stellar...than pay more for a box of 'perfect' reeds, several of which crp out once they hit the real world.
So, knowing what I know
now about the vague& organic nature of the life of a double reed, I;m rather interested to see how rapidly the newfangled single reed of today can bite me back.