does all the good players use harder reeds?

all the good players use handmade reeds

i meant `handmade hard reeds`........
thickness.......

It wouldn`t be fair to say that every good oboe player uses harder reeds, Heinz Hollinger, a world renowned french oboists plays on very light reeds (or soft)... it`s all a question of tone concept. I myself do use a harder reed, because i like a dark round sound, now i`m not talking rock hard, but harder than any machine made reed you would find. Other oboists when making their reeds buy a wider cane, and adjust the proportions of the reed to make it with a dark sound yet with a little more vibrancy, that is my goal, and I am close to it. If an oboe player attacks it that way, making a thin yet shorter tip with an intergrated-v, a subsantially thick heart, and well defined windows (don`t forget the rails and the spine) then the overtones created should make you sound great as on oboist.