I was a month ago in Washington D.C. area, and had the privilege to meet Perry Conticchio http://www.myspace.com/perryconticchio/ in the L&L music store of Gaithersburgh (http://www.llmusicshop.com/). Perry spent over 2 hours with me, helping me getting closer to the sound I have in mind, and among various things we spoke also about plastic reeds.
He recommended me the Legere reeds, and he played with one of them to me. Indeed there is very little difference from wood ones … the major disadvantage being the price … The Legere are not "pressed" or "fused" but instead are manufactured in such a way that their fibers are very close to the ones of real wood. Infact, you can even "suck" through them like the wood reeds.
The advantage of plastics is that you do not need to soak them, and according to Perry (that teached me great things also on how to "prepare" the reed) with Legere one looses no more than 10% in sound quality (whatever it means …).
So far I did not tried it out yet myself ( I kind of keep it as "reserve" in extreme situations) but on all other tips that Perry teached me I am totally happy …
My horn is a Yamaha 62, I play with Otto Link 5* and usually with Vandoren Jazz 3.
Hope it helps, if so you can thank Perry from Luca 🙂
