Pete's Blog

Ligature Schmigature: The feelgood factor, snake oil, voodoo, placebo, auto suggestion, emperor's new clothes or just a good ligature?

All of these have been applied to describe some of the more outlandish new fangled aspects of the gear we buy, whether it's a Cannonball saxophone with semi precious stones on the neck to "resonate" or just an expensive ligature turbocharger kit "Now, you can upgrade your existing ligature to our MassLoaded Technology™ with the revolutionary TurboCharger Kit." (seriously - that is in the marketing BS blurb).

(For those who are not saxophonists, a ligature is a simple metal or leather band that clamps the reed to the mouthpiece).

But so many saxophone player suffer from G.A.S. (gear acquisition syndrome), and the manufacturers know about this only too well.

One of the most hotly debated topics on the saxophone internet forums, Sax On The Web and CafeSaxophone is whether a different ligature can improve your sound. I've always been a firm believer that provided that neither reed nor mouthpiece are warped or damaged in any way, then the ligature either holds the reed properly and it works, or it doesn't hold it properly and it doesn't work.

In other words, a ligature doesn't have it's own sound in the same way a saxophone or a mouthpiece can. It either does its job or it doesn't. I have discussed this in more depth on the Taming The Saxophone site, see the saxophone ligature page.

But so many people report that a new ligature improves their sound. These people are not stupid and I believe that this can be explained in two ways.

When there is a warp issue

If the reed or mouthpiece are not true, e.g. the reed is warped or the mouthpiece table is not level, then different ligatures will have a different effect as the equipment is not working properly - a reed only vibrates when it is held firmly against the mouthpiece, just like when you hold a ruler over the edge of a table and make it "boing". If it's not held firmly it won't boing very well.

So imagine if the mouthpiece table has a bump in it, along comes a certain ligature which just happens to compensate for that bump perfectly due to the place it adds pressure to the reed. Bingo! It suddenly sounds better.

But provided the table of the mouthpiece is flat and the reed is vibrating with the perfect "boing", no amount of slightly different way to hold it there will make any difference.

The Feelgood Factor

This is when you pay £56 for a beautiful gold plated ligature with patented mass loaded resonating turbo charged anti-slip synthetic acoustic cushion.

Of course it sounds better, or you are the fool for buying it. Again, I do not wish to stand on my holier than thou high horse over this, because I don't mind admitting I'm one of those who would do the same. I love a satin gold beautifully engraved saxophone, or a mouthpiece that looks like a work of art. I test play such things and find it so difficult to stand objectively to the side and just listen without drooling over the bling.

Auto suggestion and the placebo effect are well documented, no need to feel stupid - it happens to us all.

But one episode sticks in my mind. At a trade fair, I was walking around trying things out and I stopped at the Francois Louis stand. Their ligature was supposed to sound better than other ones. I asked to try one and they allowed me to, so I started playing and soon a large audience gathered. I then swapped back to my own ligature (a simple noname 2-scew type that cost $3). Someone in the audience pointed out that it sounded the same, at which point the sales rep snatched politely asked me to move on.