Question about Vandoreen Java Reed w/Guardala Mouthpiece

[Michael]

😎 Hey Johnny,
I have experimented with the Vandoreen 2.5 Java Reed on the hard rubber MP for Tenor for a couple months; the guys at the local shop were nice enough to let me buy just one of them out of the entire pack. I have no problems playing it but it doesn’t strike me as the kind of reed well-suited for a hard-rubber MP (The Junos that I have are really good for hard-rubber Mouthpieces). I was reading about your first experience with Guardala and seems like in the beginning you weren’t a big fan of this line of Vandoren reeds either but got hooked on them once you played it with a Guardala. In your experience, do these line of reeds play better with Metal MPs in general or has it been just the Guardala?

[john]

Yes, I only like them on the Guardala. But trying one won’t necessarily let you know because in a box od 5 I only get a couple good ones. What if the one you bought is a crappy one?

[john]

i’m not an expert, but with my yamaha 4c mouthpiece i couldn’t get any joy out of the vandoren reeds, and i bought them by the box. Then i changed mouthpieces to a Kali Rubber 8, gave the vandorens another try and the java green was fantastic even though it was a 1.5, and the normal vandoren 1.5 reeds were ok as well. So it is strange, for me i get the impression that some mouthpieces were designed around specific reeds?

[Author]

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