Baritone Sax Reeds

QWales

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I picked up a cheap Buescher Baritone on FleeBay this week but need to get reeds. Wow they are so much more expensive than my Alto. I'm finding it difficult to find any for under £5 each which seems crazy, I know they are a bit bigger but it's not like I'm going to get to surf on them. Anyway, I found this place http://www.internetreeds.com/index.php that seems to sell them at a reasonable price, can anyone recommend them or not please or suggest somewhere to get cheap Vandoren or Rico Royal that I 'm used to on my Alto?
 
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They go up and down in price. I've never paid enough attention to see if it's seasonal. There's lots of singles and three packs on ebay around £3 to £4 each for baritone and boxes of five or ten. If you buy singles till you're sure what you'll use and the boxes of five or the three packs when you've settled, you should have enough to keep you going for quite a while.

I've never used internet reeds. A box of baritone reeds you can't use isn't any kind of saving.

I try to stagger the buying of reeds. A couple of months ago I ran out of everything. I ordered sop, alto, tenor, bari and clarinet and there wasn't much change out of £100. It made me think that I should have taken up brass. A tube of lip salve for a quid?
 
[QUOTE="It made me think that I should have taken up brass. A tube of lip salve for a quid?[/QUOTE]

We do seem to get a bit of a rough deal. When is someone going to invent something like a Kevlar reed that just lasts forever, surely it can't be that difficult? At these prices I think I might get my pen knife out and a bit of wet and dry and start whittling some samples from our local park ;-)
 
I tried some internet reeds ... reeds ... And they were truly the worst reeds I have ever tried. I just look out for shops clearing out old stock on ebay for baritone reeds and am currently working my way through a couple of boxes of Rico Orange that match my mouthpiece well.
 
The higher cost of bari sax reeds is an unfortunate fact of life, which is why I switched to fibracel, the initial cost is higher but in the long run works out cheaper. Don't tel anyone in my Big band no one's noticed yet!
 
Yes it's odd. Tenor and baritone seem to last for ages. I have three Selmer baritone reeds left from a box of ten that was old stock back in the 1980's. I bought them from a shop that was closing and the guy said he'd bought them a long time before from a shop that was closing down. I'm saving them for a special occasion. Lord knows what that will be.
 
I tried some internet reeds ... reeds ... And they were truly the worst reeds I have ever tried. I just look out for shops clearing out old stock on ebay for baritone reeds and am currently working my way through a couple of boxes of Rico Orange that match my mouthpiece well.
Yes, but I've found La Voz, Ponzol, Rico and Gonzales really cheap. I've avoided the Chinese brands after trying planks from flying goose.
 
HI Kevgermany - there is a brand called 'Internet reeds' which as I was saying are terrible (although I have only tried the alto reeds). Like you, I look out for offers on end of line on eBay - often old packaging etc. and I've used some of the same brands as you mentioned. I'm looking for a good, loud buzz for my big band bari work and am not so bothered about the subtleties as I might do, with say classical playing on alto or soprano when reeds seem more critical. I have also used a Hahn synthetic reed with much success but I tend to find synthetics can tire my embouchure more than cane and I'm always glad when I get back to a cane reed. You have to be careful with them at £6 a pop!
 
Of the Chinese reeds I've been pleasantly surprised with "White Crane". They're american cut like a rico orange box. Not many choices in strength.

I'd stick to Vandoren and Rico.

For a loud rasping, chainsaw, buzzing sound, the Rico metalite will deliver on baritone. My usual mouthpiece is a Selmer S80 C* and I found an M7 metalite a very easy blow. They come up second hand and new from time to time on Ebay for very little money.
 
The good news is, I find baritone reeds last longer than the smaller ones. Or is that just me?

I find the opposite. Bari reeds give me more problems than all the others, and soprano reeds are the best.

I was finding that some baritone reeds lasted barely half a rehearsal. Alexander had a good sound but are a bit variable in quality and no longevity at all. At the moment I am back to Rico Royal. Rico Select Jazz also sound good but go off in no time at all.

On tenor and alto I am loving the Rigotti Gold reeds but their baritone reeds are a different style of cut and sound dead to me.

I had high hopes for Lupifaro baritone reeds which Pete really likes, but haven't been able to get hold of them for a decent price in the UK yet.

I have also tried most of the synthetic reeds on baritone but they all have problems for me.

Rhys
 
Likewise, my bari reeds just go on and on. The 4 reeds I bought with the beast 4 years ago are still playable, although supplemented by a few more recent buys. I find that it is also perfectly playable with tenor reeds - probably not good practice but if the funds are running low and you've got a few knocking around, what could possibly go wrong?
🙂
 
On bari I'm using up a box of La Voz, medium. If you want a loud powerful sound, the PPT power is excellent. I'm not keen on metallites, even on Bari, but it's a matter of preference. The metallite is certainly loud/powerful.
 
I use a vandoren classic blue in a 4 with a Selmer S80 C* and they last ages. A new one is a little stiff but a good soak and a half hour blow sorts them. I found the metalite interesting on tenor and baritone but sold them on. The clarinet M11 works great.
 
My Bari reeds seem to last well - I usually have 2 or 3 on the go at once (one for practice, one for performance etc) I date all my reeds with the date of their inaugural blow, and some are still hanging around a year later!
 
I invested in a reed cutter for alto to ressurect reeds at £1 to £2 each. I seemed a no brainer when I got the Bari to invest in a clipper for reeds costing £3 to £5 each.

@rhysonsax it might be worth clipping the reeds that go off quickly or starting a strength higher and playing them in the gone off state
 

Similar threads... or are they? Maybe not but they could be worth reading anyway 😀

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