The effect of lip on the response of single cane reed is studied. In a first part, the real human lip is characterized using a shaker and a impedance head. The measurement is conducted for different lip configuration. Then artificial lips are built and their mechanical impedance are measured. An artificial lip is retained for making experiments conducted on single reeds. The mechanical response of a a reed mounted on a mouthpiece and excited with a loudspeaker is measured using an artificial lip pressed against the reed. The measured transfer functions show a two degree of freedom response which resonance characteristics depend on the lip pressure. For a high lip pressure, the first resonance shows a high damped resonance around 1200 Hz and the second resonance is located around 4000 Hz.