I have an OD Virginia Planter that I like smoking as it has a huge bowl and smokes quite cool. The reed stem split lengthwise on my 3rd smoke, but the good folks at Missouri Meerschaum sent me a replacement stem right away and I was back in order a few days later.
I don’t really clench, but I will say that the bit-end of the stem gets a little moist during a smoke. The fact that it has a huge bowl means that a smoke can last 40min or longer, so it can get pretty wet such that I occasionally wonder if the mouthpiece is going to get gooey. But it has not yet, and it dries out just fine between smokes (I don’t use it everyday nor for back-to-back bowls).
A photo of my repaired stem being glued back in place: