Reeds French or American cut reeds?

[Linky Lee]

[No message]

 

[tris]

[No message]

 

[suethesax]

I've used Rico Grand Concert Select for classical and Jazz select (filed) for everything else for ages and am happy with them so am too much of a coward to try anything else but I keep reading good things about these Alexanders so might just break out of my rut and give them a try :erm:

 

[Pete Thomas]

Go on, try an Aelxander. But Rico Plasicovers are good too..

 

[mfox]

dont foget the excellent metal tin the alexanders come in.. so 1920s

 

[Linky Lee]

oh! metal tin!

I may just invest!

It would be nice to try some out anyway.

 

[Bobby G]

Me too! Metal tin alone sounds worth the price of admission. Like SuetheSax, I get on fine with the Rico Jazz Selects, but I like to have a play around too. The 'intimate connection' as described by tris sounds nice - I know what he means there, didn't mfox also mention that the Alexanders are very smooth to the touch? My RJS reeds go like that when I've been playing them for a while, it's a very tactile sensory sensation. Presumably this smoothness comes from a closer-grained cane, or is it all in the preparation?

Cheers, Bob

 

[mfox]

alexanders state in their bumpf that their reeds are finnished off with diamonds...hehe

 

[Bobby G]

mfox wrote:
alexanders state in their bumpf that their reeds are finnished off with diamonds...hehe

Whereas mine are finished off by teeth, spit, bits of crisps and chocolate, tuna and dilute black coffee

 

[jonf]

Is it just me? I bought a tin of Alexander Superials, and they were awful 😡 I tried the first five that came out of the tin (lovely tin, mind) and they were all unplayable. Yuck. Lots of comments on a certain American forum about this.

On the other hand, in each of the last two boxes of Jazz Selects, four out of five were great, with one dull but just about playable. 🙂

 

[Rogerb]

Were they just the wrong strength, Jon?
I think Superials are MUCH harder than equivalent strengths iof others types.

 

[tris]

😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱

A bad Alexander!?! Damn it! I knew this would happen!! As soon as anything gets popular quality control goes down the swannie. I did know that recently in the US they were sold out in a lot of places... putting 2 and 2 together.


Was it 4 sequential reeds? If this is the case they may have been stored up against a cold wall or a radiator. Just one half of the packet affected.

PS how did they not play?

 

[Bobby G]

Is it right about the differing strengths of Alexanders? I am playing on RJS 2H or 3S, should I be trying, say, a 2 strength Alexander?

Cheers, Bob

p.s. if you want a cool little tin, get a tin of M&S mints 😉

 

[jonf]

LOL

The Alexanders I tried were only strength 2. It wasn't that they were hard to blow, just dull dull dull. This was on my Lawton at first, so I tried them on a couple of Bergs. Even on a Duckbill bullet they were still completely lifeless. On a bronze Berg - just the same. They were five pulled at random from a tin.

Still, it was only one tin, so I wouldn't read too much into it. It's just I've found RJS so great recently it was a bit of a contrast, and a disappointment, as lots of guys seem to really rate Alexanders.

 

[Bobby G]

I've tried Java's recently. Nice reeds, but the sound didn't really inspire me.

Cheers, Bob

 

[Rogerb]

Bob Green wrote:
I've tried Java's recently. Nice reeds, but the sound didn't really inspire me.

Cheers, Bob

Funny, innit, Java 2s are those from which I'm getting the best on my new Jody Jazz DV 😀

It makes my point again, that you can't pay too much attention to others' recommendations regarding reeds... you just have to find what suits *you* !

 

[Linky Lee]

Actually I'd agree with you on a Jody Jazz DV, When I tried one out Javas really blended well with the mouthpiece, but I found the set up way too bright for my saxophone which is already incredibly pure and bright.

The stronger vandorean reed would compensate for the ridiculously free blowing Jody Jazz, there is absolutely no resistance from it at all! (I didn't like that)

I ended with an Otto Link Super Tone Master with Rico Jazz Select 2M's instead.

 

[Bobby G]

Two questions - Jody Jazz, described as bright, very free-blowing, no resistance etc. I like the sound of this, especially knowing Roger's penchant for a singing or Sanborn-y sound. So, can you tell me more please?

Also, JonF describes RJS as being great recently, and Tris wonders about Alexander's quality control. Does this mean that the quality of a given brand of reed can go up as well as down? Is there such a thing as a 'good year' for cane?

Ok, three questions 😛

Cheers, Bob

 

[Rogerb]

I'm not sufficiently qualified to say more than it's 'easy to blow'(now I've found a suitable reed and got my chops around the smaller 'beak'), it's LOUD, and I suppose it's bright, although I don't have enough 'data' to compare with.
I really like its clarity of sound and the 'full-bodied' character.... can't think of a better description.

HTH!

I haven't tried Alexanders... although I will, no doubt, eventually!

 

[Linky Lee]

I spent a day at sax.co.uk trying out variousdifferent mouthpieces.
Mainly the jody Jazz DV, Otto Link Super Tone Master, Mayer and Otto Link Ebonites, all with various different reeds.

With regard to the jody jazz:

It is rather expensive, but comes in a really nice wooden case.
The mouthpiece I played obviously very well made and a lot of thought had gone into it and it's construction.

The mouthpiece was so free blowing it didn't feel like there was a reed on it! And this is without exaggeration! It certainly made it easier to tongue fast passages!
A downside of this is that you get no resistance from the mouthpiece which some may regard as good but I prefer to have something to blow against and get some feedback from. I found that playing loud (which you could do so easily) felt very strange as it didn't seem like you needed to put much effort into it.

At this point it was a winner for me as I thought I'd be able to get used to this feel, and it would aid tonguing, double tonguing etc. and just help my mouth keep up with my fingers that little bit easier.

In terms of tone, this is where it failed for me. It's tone was incredibly flexable. It could play smooth and raucous and at all volumes, quiet as easily as loud. The entire range of the saxophone was really easy to get, the low and high notes being a breeze just like the rest of the sax. You felt if you knew what to do you could get another octave out of it for the same effort as before.

Unfortuantly it's overall sound was clean, crisp and bright.
As I have a Hanson SA-8-24K-F, my sax is very bright and incredably pure already. The mouthpiece was complete overkill for my instrument.

If you have a vintage saxophone, or one which isn't quite so bright naturally this mouthpiece would be incredibly good fun, and would be an asset to anyones set-up.

weather it warrents the price tag is another thing coming.

As you probably know, I went for the Otto Link, and can't say that I really regret it either. Though after writing this review I am quite liking the idea of one for my Martin. Though it's not really necesary as the Otto Link works lovely on that as well.