Ligatures Rovner ligature tenor sax

paul oliver (ollie) · Feb 25, 2016

Well today I purchased a Jody Jazz hr 7* for my tenor sax. As these do not come with a ligature i bought a standard Rovner ligature dark 2R. I tested it out with a green vandoren 2-1/2 and it plays nice with a great sound. I have however found that in the lowes notes Bb/ B /C# there was a slight bad resonance. Almost the sound you get with an uneven reed. I found that by tightening the lig screws quite hard it pretty much eliminates it. If anyone out there has one of these HOW TIGHT DO YOU DO YOURS UP? I dont know if they are to be applied loose or quite tight. Any ideas? Also the literature suggests they take a few hours to bed in. Would that explain it? Thanks Paul Oliver aka Ollie.

Nick Wyver · Feb 25, 2016

I do mine quite tight. They can stretch.

Greg Strange · Feb 26, 2016

What Nick said - also you want to lubricate the metal part of the ligature periodically with a bit of key oil, cork grease or Vaseline... experiment with the tighting I usually adjust mine until the reed doesn't move...the position of the ligature on the mouthpiece and whether ligature is "cocked" forward or back...

Greg S.

Newjazz · May 30, 2016

Exactly!.......i too realize that my ligature needs to be really really tight otherwise the resonance of the low end becomes mushiness! In fact I hesitated a few times to tighten too much because i started to sense the fibers of the reed would start to deform but, wow a big difference in the responce is f the horn!
By the way i am not using the rovner ligature, its just a generic i believe. Since its almost stretched to the limits and probably needs to be replaced i will make a trip to the music store. However, i doubt a rovner would get tight enough to start squish the reed fibers! Will keep you posted!.........

Colin the Bear · May 30, 2016

I like to use a textile ligature with the screw part over the reed. You can buy a cheap Chinese for very little. The screw and bars is the clever bit. You can cut a piece of suitable fabric to fit your mouthpiece. Mine was too big so I pulled it apart, altered it with a small pair of scissors and glued it back together. Still using it.