back to square one

[sxpoet]

it’s that time of hair pulling again – i recently bought a Dark mouthpiece, as it’s completely different to my Bright mouthpiece, i’ve now got to go through the process of finding the right reed to go with it. I’ve got a rough idea of the strength of reed as i found a number 3 reed gives me altissimo.

So i went into my local sax shop, and bought 11 different reeds, mainly Vandoren and D’addaro brand.

Vandoren
Traditional no. 3
Java Red no. 3.5
Java Green no. 3.5
ZZ no. 3.5
V12 no. 3
V16 no. 3.5
V21 no. 3

D’addario
Select Filed no. 3M
Select unFiled no .3M
La Voz MH
Organic Reserve no. 3

I got a free plasticover No. 3.5 reed thrown in.

Also bought some mouthpiece patches to protect the mouthpiece.

And also bought the Jazzlab sax harness – brilliant, wish i bought it years ago

[sxpoet]

[Jeff]

I think it would be a better approach to buy five single reeds in 1 to 3 reed strength,
of a dependable quality reed like say a Vandoren Blue box reed.
If the #3 reeds are too hard, you won’t be able to use any of them on your new MP.
I’m presently using a #1 reed on my 6 MP and I can still play the upper high notes on it.
Having a softer reed means you can compensate with lip pressure and air flow – but if it’s too hard?

[john]

the problem with buying a couple single reeds out of a box is there’s only a few good reeds in that entire box so how do you know you’re getting one of the good ones?

[Jeff]

Hi John, of course it’s impossible to know. I polish the table side of the new reed on an A4 sheet of paper until it shines evenly and is smooth. The lip side gets smoothed down with a soft flexible nail file until it also shines and is smooth on the lip. If it looks a little uneven I’ll even take some reed off the thicker side. I haven’t had a reed from Vandoren that I can’t play yet. Perhaps being an amateur means I don’t really know what I’m looking for in a quality reed. I bought the #1 reeds to try and was surprised that I could still play the high notes with ease. What I really love about them is that they require very little breath to vibrate, so one can play really softly which is ideal for the Church environment. Cheers

[Leo Salu]

Try a fiberreed works great right out of the box I have one of each type in medium strength, my favorite is the hemp. And they last a long long time, Check Johnny’s review of the fiberreed you will never go back to wood. BTW i have a few new boxes of Vandoren’s, have never opened them and probably never will.

[sxpoet]

That was a very successful test, i tested all 11 reeds playing each one along to johnny’s Michele backing track (suitable track for a dark mouthpiece).

When i was buying the reeds, i did mention the fact that i could be picking a bad reed, however when i tested them, i found three vandoren reeds were hard to play – in fact they are ideal if i want that breathy sound, Vandoren Traditional No.3, Vandoren V12 No.3 and the Vandoren V16 No.3 reeds.

i Think cane reed manufacturing quality has improved a lot more compared to 10 years ago.

In terms of sound, the only noticeable big difference was a few reeds had a nice buzz if you like that effect.

In terms of resistance, that where i noticed big differences, some reeds responded very quickly (ideal for marching band, and lively jazz) others were slower in response (ideal for strong classical music).

In fact the reeds that responded very quickly with least resistance tended to be more bright sounding which was interesting to notice.

I’ve played on No. 3 reeds on my bright mouthpiece for a few years, and find in general any reed below a no.3 tends to be unsuitable after 10 mins of playing, I’ve tried a few different Brands in the past, so buying several different sizes of the same reed, i would find to be pointless waste of cash.

So i’ve now got 8 playable reeds to further test out to find which i would buy by the box.

What really surprised me was the Plasticover No.3.5 reed was as good as the other 7 reeds, and had a nice buzz, ideal for more jazzy sound and it responded very quickly.

Just to be clear about what my meaning of Response is – play a big bunch of C notes as 16th notes, some brands take a lot longer to get the note out, while the more responsive reeds will kick the note out instantly (ideal if you are play a fast tempo)

[sxpoet]

I have tried synthetic reeds on the Alto, and to date i haven’t found any brand that works well across the alto range. I found a lot of random notes dropped out badly and going higher up the sax, the notes sounded very false, squeaky and plasticky, like i was playing a plastic recorder.

The synthetic reeds definitely work better with Tenors.

However a newer synthetic reed for the alto (ven), i have yet to try out.

[sxpoet]

i would definitely buy a few plasticover reeds, as an alternative to a plain cane reed, ideal for practicing.

But to reiterate, i need test the remaining 8 reeds in more depth, across different styles of music, all 8 reeds are contenders, the D’addario Select Unfiled 3Medium reed is a front runner with the rest closely following.

The funny thing with the plasticover reed i could really feel the tip vibrating against the tip of my tongue when blowing , compared to the pure cane reeds.

[sxpoet]

All the reeds i just put them on my tongue for a minute or so, so that they were warm and wet. No reed preparation was performed on the reeds.

But i need to play my reeds on a rotation process, ex take 6 new reeds, and play each one for a maximum of 10 minutes each – start treating them more sensibly, so they get broken in properly. Then after a few weeks i can start playing a reed for an hour or so, rotating to a different reed the next day. As i only practice for about an hour, before practicing on the clarinet.

[Author]

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