Reeds Synthetic Reeds from China

[Fraser Jarvis]

Was looking at these they seem ok, has anyone any experience of them? just looking at different alternatives to the Fibracell's i'm currently using. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PREMIUM-B...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item416de35e94

 

[altissimo]

China? It says 'made in Korea'

http://www.seinsia.com/m_mall_detail.php?ps_ctid=01000000&ps_goid=9

http://youtu.be/pz0JNRNUqmI

they make a lot of mouthpieces and ligatures too...

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

Yes, my mistake, not sure about that removable name logo thing, looks a bit wrong does that.

 

[TimboSax]

They look pretty cool...

 

[milandro]

cool though they might look.........they should be good too in order to command that kind of price!

They look nice, I give you that, and the holder is nice too BUT........

This is not a seller who appears to be selling a lot of musical items, in fact they appear to sell all sorts of plastic made implements too many even to attempt to tell you in 81 pages of different items for sale

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Electronic-Commerce-Korea?_trksid=p2047675.l2563


so, no musical credibility there at a price that is equal to a good well known brand like Fibracell.

Besides, they sell you a try out set with three different strengths, nice, you pay for 3 deers, you MAY find one to your liking.......so what are you gonna do with the other 2 now used reeds that are to hard or too weak for you?

the you tube video appears to be PRIVATE!

 

[altissimo]

cool though they might look.........they should be good too in order to command that kind of price!

They look nice, I give you that, and the holder is nice too BUT........

This is not a seller who appears to be selling a lot of musical items, in fact they appear to sell all sorts of plastic made implements too many even to attempt to tell you in 81 pages of different items for sale

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Electronic-Commerce-Korea?_trksid=p2047675.l2563


so, no musical credibility there at a price that is equal to a good well known brand like Fibracell.

Besides, they sell you a try out set with three different strengths, nice, you pay for 3 deers, you MAY find one to your liking.......so what are you gonna do with the other 2 now used reeds that are to hard or too weak for you?

the you tube video appears to be PRIVATE!

The Seinsia website - http://www.seinsia.com/index.php - only seems to list sax mouthpieces and accessories, but it seems possible that it's a sub division of a much larger company, Sein, who make a lot of other products. Other Korean made sax equipment seems to be well made, but not found out much about this lot yet.
3 reeds for £28-ish with free standard international shipping isn't that expensive when most synthetic reeds are £15 or more. If you can tell me where I can get 3 Fibracells for that price, I'd be grateful.
The youtube video I posted appears to be publicly viewable, as is this one - http://youtu.be/IKXodoxcWoo

they don't appear to be try out sets with 3 different strengths, there's a drop down menu where you can select the strength from super soft #2 to hard #3.25 and the picture here shows a set all the same strength - http://www.seinsia.com/m_mall_detail.php?ps_ctid=01000000&ps_goid=9
The website is in Korean, but it gives a price of 25,000 South Korean Won, which if XE is correct, is roughly £14.50, but I can't tell if that's for the set or individually, or if postage is extra - any language experts out there? It doesn't seem to be possible to copy and paste the text into Google Translate

 

[milandro]

the price that the original ebay ad quoted by OP shows me is 45$ + shipping (ebay ad says it is not included), shall we make it a nice round 60$ ?

Assuming I am not paying any VAT normally charged by customs on packages and a minimum fee for handling (if they ship in an envelope I won’t have to pay the if a small parcel I would, NL customs are very thorough about this) which if charged would be 20% + at least 5€ (charged even by the postal service if any custom declaration is involved)

60$=44,91€

Fibracell are 16,07€ a piece + 3€ postage ( ship in an envelope)= 51€

Upon better reading I see you can chose the strength but can you say you know for sure the strength of these unknown reeds so that you know for sure that you are not buying something you can’t use?

.........I rest my reed case

http://saxcompany.nl/saxshop/fibracell-standard-voor-tenorsaxofoon-per-stuk-p-1221.html

 

[jazzdoh]

Seen these before on Ebay and wondered what they were like but im happy with Fibracell.

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

Seen these before on Ebay and wondered what they were like but I'm happy with Fibracell.

I wonder what they are like, and am not happy with Fibracell, well they were ok until they changed to the new premier version, ok I find them nice and bright and easy to play which obviously suits me BUT they just don't last with the backing coming away on every one I've had so far, another thing I don't like is when skanking I don't get a clean crisp note, something that I should, but find many notes just break down into overtones which is bad! I've just tried a Harry Hartman natural that was a little bit hard for me so am now waiting on them sending out a Hartman Carbon Fiberreed like I tried before and liked, apart from the bit still stuck in my lip!

Another break through is the old Bari plastic reeds which I have one of in hard, when I bought it it just sounded dull sterile and lifeless, but after digging it out last night and going to work on it with a Stanley blade and the Daughters nail file I now have a bright very stable reed that will blow away any fibracell I've had! the other thing is you can get them for about £4.00 on e-bay again from china so maybe this is the thing for me from now on?

 

[ProfJames]

I bought a Forestone fibre reed from TomMap and it is excellent. May be worth a try.

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

Yes, how much from him?

 

[thesaxman71]

just stick to real cane reeds!

 

[ProfJames]

I think I paid Tom £12. Believe that you can get them from sax.co.uk but Tom should be able to help. Very good reeds, I was also using Fibracell but now I will continue with Forestone. Although I am not at your level of playing!

http://www.forestone-japan.com/index.php/tenor-saxophone-reeds/

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

just stick to real reeds!

what like the Jazz selects I got from Rico? er thanks but no thanks!

 

[altissimo]

strange, the ebay ad says free international shipping - maybe it displays differently in the Netherlands?

I've not tried the new Fibracell Premiers, the backing always did peel and bubble on the old ones, but peeling it off doesn't seem to affect how they play. Not sure what that backing film is there for.
I gave up on carbon fibre reeds after finding that the fibres on the Hahns I had were delaminating and bits of fibre were sticking in my lip and the tip got so frayed that tongueing was impossible - I trimmed the frayed bit off, but it kept getting a jagged edge. If they could stop the fibres from splitting, I'd still use them, I liked the zingy responsiveness.
Maybe the Hartmanns are better - one day I'll give 'em a try.

The Bari plastic reeds that I have are all cut slightly differently - the first one I bought was cut off centre by about 1.5 mm. When I emailed Bari, they kindly sent me a few replacements and they're also a bit off centre. The hard plastic they're made from can be filed down and with a bit of effort made playable. I got complimented on sounding like John Zorn when I played one at a gig.
I've not tried the Bari Star reeds, so don't know if they're any better.

I gave up on Legere after their strength chart turned out to be highly inaccurate - the 2 1/2 Legere Original was stiff as a board and the 2 Studio Cut was softer than a Rico 1 1/2 and I didn't want to spend more money on the restocking fee and postage back to Canada to swap them for other strengths. The Legere Signatures seem to be better, but I don't want to spend 20 quid to find out if the strengths are sensible or not
Thomann still have some of the old Fibracells in stock, as well as the Forestone but it's 10 euros postage.
Reeds Direct only have the Hard strength original Fibracells.
Howarths have the old Fibracells listed as 'limited' so may have a few left in stock

 

[Jobylou]

I bought a Forestone fibre reed from TomMap and it is excellent. May be worth a try.

So did I, and I love it, it has the edge over my Legere, but just tried to buy another and the only place I can find them is Germany with 10 Euro shipping 🙁
Howarth have stopped selling them.
Also the ones from Germany look a darker colour and have printing on them by the look of it which mine doesn't?
If you find them anywhere in the UK please let me know!
I tried Fibrecell, but I don't like them at all.

 

[ProfJames]

http://www.forestone-japan.com/index.php/online-store/

Buy direct from Forestone in Japan.

http://www.forestone-japan.com/index.php/our-partners/

 

[altissimo]

you can get Forestones on Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/FORESTONE-S...TF8&qid=1379410911&sr=8-27&keywords=forestone
for£15.92 + £13.36 UK delivery :shocked:

Woodbrass in France sell them - http://www.woodbrass.com/en/wind+in...ssories/reeds/saxophones+reeds?filter_id=2238

but I can't find out how much the postage is without going through the shopping cart and signing in to an account

we should just hassle Howarths until they restock...

 

[Jobylou]

you can get Forestones on Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/FORESTONE-S...TF8&qid=1379410911&sr=8-27&keywords=forestone
for£15.92 + £13.36 UK delivery :shocked:

Woodbrass in France sell them - http://www.woodbrass.com/en/wind+in...ssories/reeds/saxophones+reeds?filter_id=2238

but I can't find out how much the postage is without going through the shopping cart and signing in to an account

we should just hassle Howarths until they restock...

Thank you for that, Woodbrass.com are the Amazon Sellers, their own site charges 13 Euro Shipping!
Shipping is 5 US Dollars from Forestone Japan.
I just want to buy them in the UK though! You are right - we should gang up on Howarths!

 

[altissimo]

I just emailed Howarths, asking if they're going to restock Forestone reeds and also emailed Sax.co.uk, since they stock Forestone saxophones, asking if they're considering selling the reeds as well

lets see if I get a response