Hi Dazza, i’ve seen them for sale in the UK, they look really cool.

I know a ligature will change you to a slightly different tone but it won’t improve your existing tone (only practicing long tones improve a players existing tone). So am curious is it a darker or brighter tone or smoother or sharper/clearer tone compared to your old mouthpiece? (would like to buy one and try it out).

When i say it will only change your tone slightly i mean in comparison to changing a mouth piece or a sax made of different metals where you can get a huge change in tone, from a dark sound in classical music to a bright sound in rock music.

For my classical music (more dark sounding), if i swap between my theowanne metal ligature
http://store.theowanne.com/products/enlightened-ligature
and my leather rovner,
http://www.rovnerproducts.com/products/ligatures/classic/versa-ligature.php
there isn’t too much difference in tone when i listen back to it. However if i change the metal plate in either my ligatures i get a warmer or clearer tone, depending if use a copper plate or a brass plate.

This new ligature i’d be interested if anyone has tried it
http://www.sax.co.uk/silverstein-cryo-4-gold-ligature.ir

Thanks for sharing, and tell me what you notice?

Good stuff guys, a good ligature is a very simple but really important thing to have for sure. A good ligature isn’t going to instantly give us a good tone–a good tone comes from us as players like Sxpoet was saying above–but a poor ligature will prevent that tone from projecting out of the Sax. The reed just can’t vibrate as freely. As we can see with Dazza’s explanation above with what he found–his tone was already there to begin; that comes from us as players. But once he got a good ligature the problems that he had before are now gone. Along with the Francois Louis Ultimate Ligature, there have been great things said about the Saxxas line of ligatures too, which is basically a Winslow ligature. Would be really interested to get my hands on a Saxxas/Winslow Ligature someday. Here’s a video from a friend of mine, Ian, who turned me onto to the Francois Louis Ultimate Ligature about a year and half ago. Notice what he says about them.

Great point Wayne!!

I used a Francois Loui Lig for my metal tenor mp when I used it. Seemed to work well for me. I’m experimenting with some HR mp now tho so am using different ligs. I just ordered a couple ligs for my alto and sopranos saxes. Anyone ever hear of these: Bois Excellente Lig
http://www.wwbw.com/Bois-Excellente-Saxophone-Ligature-585666-i1537749.wwbw

Its a ring that seems to hold the reed in place and allows it to vibrate freely. Will let you know what I find out when I get them. My 2 concerns are gonna be that they hold a seal and keep the reed in place. The other is I can only select one position for the lig to sit in. Luckily there is a return policy. LOL. From the reviews I read they were generally all thumbs up but to each his own. I will find out soon enough.