Ligatures Ligature for altissimo

[robaldo]

I always thought the ligature thing was mostly bull****, but I just tried a vandoren/rovner? (awaiting details from bob) and discovered that suddenly I can get a whole load of altissimo notes that I was formerly only dreaming about, and that the whole range of the instrument is smoother and sexier.

I'm eating my hat as we speak!

 

[tengu01]

Uh-oh. I see a can o' worms being opened.

 

[Bobby G]

It's a Rovner, Rob, the cutout bit denotes it as bright, I think, as opposed to dark, which hasn't got the cutout. Since mucking about a fair bit with ligs when I was upgrading from my first basic mpc I sort of concluded that the ligature didn't make that much difference to the sound, or that the differences between ligatures could be reproduced by changing embouchure, as that and the mpc have a greater effect than the bit of metal or leathery stuff that holds the reed in place.

I know there are varying opinions on how much difference a ligature can make, but I think it might be time for a little experiment with what I have, as I am now able to control and modulate my embouchure better. If only to help me decide for myself, rather than tell you whether you're right or wrong, which as a relative novice, and self-taught also, I wouldn;t dare to do.

So, what do I need to do? Presumably, use the same sax, mouthpiece and reed, and position of the reed on the mouthpiece, and try and detect differences with alternate ligs. I have a few to play around with - the basic metal with two screws, a couple of Rovner brights (one with a gold screw, one with steel, I know some people will say such things make a difference), a Rovner dark, a big fat BG with rubbery stuff against the reed, and one of those gold-coloured metal Vandoren ligs with the three interchangeable clip-on plates.

FWIW, I always use the Rovner brights, purely because I find them easy to use (only one screw, too).

Cheers, Bob

 

[Linky Lee]

I don't think there there is hardly a difference. I've used a few different ligatures and yes they have had their subtle changes but not like the manufacturers say.

I can't see how a different ligature could improve your intonation unless you were using blu-tack to hold the reed on previously!

Though when I switched from a cheap metal 2 screw thing standard to a rovner light on the tenor I found a nice change. The tone wasn't as brash and it took some of the heavy reed sound out and left it with a softer and warmer sound and a slightly improved ease of blowing.
I also found the same thing switching to a Rovner dark on the alto from a BG standard on both the metal mouthpiece and the ebonite.

The view I currently take on ligatures is the smaller, lighter and to an extent looser they are the better. I think all they should do is stop the reed from moving up, down, left and right during playing.

I don't like having plates inside, chunky things or anything 'extra' on my ligature as all I can see this doing is dampening and soaking up vibrations of the reed.

If a bit of string were as easy to set up consistently well as a rovner dark or light ligature I would use that straight away.

I've noticed a Vandorean ligature that is a bit of woven string with a draw string kind of clamp to it. This looks like a really interesting idea to me, but they are too expensive to try one out for a decent length of time I think. ?44! it's crazy.

 

[Bobby G]

The idea behind the Vandoren Optimum with the three plates is something like; plate 1, only four 'points' touching the reed (in reality, digging into the reed) for very free blowing; plate 2, two raised 'lines' on the underside of the plate touch the reed along its length allowing free reed vibration and an open sound; plate 3, two raised 'lines' of metal on the underside of the plate hold the reed across-ways, for a more centred sound for use in ensemble or classical playing.

That's how I remember it, anyway, I threw the info and box out ages ago.

I suppose another constant during the experiment would have to be embouchure. This could be more difficult than I first thought :erm:

Cheers, Bob

 

[Jules]

The only real differences I've found have been metal ligs- the Vandoren, BG trianglar ones or those little Francois Louis vs standard leather/rubber based ones. The metals make things a bit more lively, tone wise. Rovner Eddie Daniels do the same if you set 'em up right. However, as the posts above say- its pretty minimal difference.
Another good tip on Eddie Ds- they're the best non-slip ligature I've ever found. If you do a lot of pulling your mouthpiece about then they're almost garaunteed not to pull off by accident.

 

[robaldo]

Sorry, but I found the difference to be huge.