“reed squeak”

[Lawrie van Niekerk]

Hi Guys; while I am not a pro player I have been playing tenor for a good few years and folks say I have a good sound; BUT I keep getting these ‘squeaks’ and ‘squawks’ from the reed; and then sometimes it seems as if it just “slams shut” and the sax clams up!!!! I use copious water for the reed before and sometimes during practice (or a gig) and it seems to help, but then a lot of water accumulates in the neck and it can affect the sound (a ‘gurgle’ instead of a growl) I play a Selmer Mark VI with a Vandoren T 27 m/p, a BG lig and a Rico Royal 2 1/2 reed. Can anyone help? Lawrie.

[john]

From a distance my first suggestion would be to try different reeds…meaning different makes. Rico Royals a=have been a standard forever but there are so many other good ones out there to try. I review a handful here but even this list is small:

All About Saxophone Reeds

[jake]

Yea. The same thing is happening to me.
Michael and I were just talking about that on the
Current blog page. I used vandoren java 2 and
2.5. Also use Rico’s ax well. This only happens
On my tenor tho. I don’t have the issue on my
Alto. I also notice that when I play the alto it
Doesn’t get at “wet” than when I play my tenor

[Lawrie van Niekerk]

Hi Guys; thanks for your chats; guess what? I changed to a new reed and the problem disappeared!!

[Author]

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