Ligatures Ligatures - do they make a difference?

[half diminished]

Well, bough a Francoire Louis Ultimate ligature in gold plate

Initially sounded a bit brighter, less dark but after a couple of weeks I can confirm that it has made no difference to my sound at all though as previously mentioned playing in the upper register now seems to be easier and there is more projection. Or of course my embouchure has improved (as I know it continues to do) as I practice more and more!

Still, it looks real cool!

 

[dooce]

Just a thought from a beginner.
How much difference does the positioning of the ligature make, that is sliding ligature towards the mouth or further back down the mouthpiece. The width of ligatures are probably different and would simulate different positions, wider would give same effect as being more forward,

does that make sense,

Rod

Surprised that none of our great authorities on the site haven't responded to that Rod, but it's a question I've often thought to ask. In my experience, it does make a difference - the closer to the tip of the mouthpiece the lig sits, there is less unclamped reed to vibrate, and this can quite substantially affect the tone and your control of it. It's well worth playing around with the lig to see what best suits you, your mouthpiece and reed.

 

[half diminished]

Surprised that none of our great authorities on the site haven't responded to that Rod, but it's a question I've often thought to ask. In my experience, it does make a difference - the closer to the tip of the mouthpiece the lig sits, there is less unclamped reed to vibrate, and this can quite substantially affect the tone and your control of it. It's well worth playing around with the lig to see what best suits you, your mouthpiece and reed.

Can't say I have noticed any difference after all the table is flat (hopefully) and by clamping the reed stock against it, the reed should be held pretty flat. Or should I get my coat!

 

[Saxade]

I believe they (ligs) do make a difference when I compare the BG with the Francois Louis, the FL is much brighter than the BG.
Whether that is because Iam using them on a metal Otto Link I don't know...
I have them both in my case and at the moment I much prefer the Francois Louis ...
Just my Two Bob's Worth ;}

 

[losaavedra]

Interesting thread this because any ligature discussion brings out similar points as occur when discussing guitar capos. The job of a capo is to hold down all six guitar strings at some fret position across the finger board, thus shifting the relative tuning of all the strings up the same number of semitones. Because not all guitar finger boards are flat (some have cambers) the contour of the holding-down bit needs to be taken into account, as does the general 'firmness' of the holding down mechanism, to avoid string rattle. A temporary capo can be constructed using a pencil stub at least 2cm longer than the fretboard width with an elastic band wound around the protruding ends. However, shop-bought capos come in several varieties. There are all-metal ones employing a sprung lever, plastic ones with adjustment notches, and (the ones I get on best with) those made of wood faced with a leather pad where the tightening is achieved via a cord wound round a variation of a violin peg. I have at least 8 capos around the place, six being this latter sort ... and five of those were home-made. An adaption of the wooden peg and cord idea might work quite well as a sax lig, and I might have a crack at making one some day. If its achievable then I think it would at least be aesthetically pleasing to look at! Something that's a bit tricky about sax mps is that the outer barrel sides aren't always parallel but, if extended (through your head!) converge at a point roughly 14cms beyond the mouthpiece tip. Worse, sometimes there's a curve involved too. Short of redesigning the outside of a mouthpiece to have a more straightforeward shape I think we're stuck with that problem!

Finally, on a cautionary note, the other aspect that needs to be brought out, regarding ligatures, is 'convenience'. It could be, for example, that close-binding a reed onto a sax mouthpiece (like putting rings on a fishing rod) provides the most mechanically efficient way of doing it ... but if it takes 10 or 15 minutes to do a reed change in the middle of a gig ... everyone else will go home! Again there's a similarity in dealing with string breaks on guitars. On some of mine I can change a string and re-tune in around one minute, but on one of them (a strat copy) it usually involves taking the backplate off (six screws) to first fish the broken bits out of the trem with a pair of long-nosed pliers. The guitar players amongst us will know what jolly fun that can be ... the only happy guy in the band will be the drummer as he'll see it as his cue for yet another solo!!

 

[berniesax]

ligatures

all the top sax players in all genres of music mainly used the two screw ligs except for the metal otto link players with the thumb screw ! up until the late seventys i guess but wow did they produce some fine sounds ! they sort of set all the standards but i agree with jonf gettin the reed right is my biggest problem.
bernie

 

[Sunray]

Re: ligatures

I know this is an old thread ...

On my travels through cyberspace I found this and thought it was worth posting in case anyone else was interested ...

Links to SelmerLigPatent.pdf file - The original patent for a Ligature for Reed Instruments
By GM Bundy May 7th 1940

When you click the link it should download the file automatically to your computer ...

[I have checked it and have found no virus or anything untoward attached to it] ... 🙂

[Link Here]

 

[nlancaster]

I have tried: Normal 2 screws, selmer 1 and 2 screws, harrison and rico h, all FL, theo wanne, oleg, string, vandoren optimum, bg (leather and metal), rovner light and dark, zagar "q", otto link vintage and new, metal band ligs, 3band brillhart, bay ligs, labayle ligs, beechler ligs and saxxas ligatures. I feel that all the ligs in some way will fall into a few groups of which in that group there arent enough differences to change from one to the other. However to change to a lig in a different group would change the response. Whether this be a good or bad, prefferred or unneeded change is up to the player, however I have enjoyed the design and the way each of these ligs play.

 

[Saxade]

Re: ligatures

I have my lig and love it... Its simple... It works Easy to use... It is called Bois Classique