Klarinet Archive - Posting 000026.txt from 1997/10

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Ligature.
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 22:04:54 -0400

I personally use Charles Bay ligatures on every horn that I
own...including alto saxophone. It is thin nickle, and very difficult to
take care of, but, short of the old Casper ligatures, I have found them to
be the best ligature I have played on. I don't care for the Harrison
ligatures, primarily because they vary so greatly from ligature to
ligature. I also find the difference between gold and nickle (or is it
sliver?...can't remember) to be negligible. Davit Hite told me in a
recent email that Harrison recently passed away....which is
unfortunate....his reed cases are exquisite. However, I recall watching
Harrison demonstrate a ligature for a high school student at the Michigan
Mid-West Conference held in Ann Arbor, MI in 1982. His approach was to
take the student's ligature and put it on his horn and reed and then
proceed to squeak and chirp. He then replaced the student's ligature with
his own and played some flawless passages ....scales or some other etude.
He looked at the student and told him the difference was the ligature!!
He also claimed to have never used any other reeds in the past ten years
than the ones that were in his clarinet reed case....because they would
never wear out! He was quite a salesman.....but the ligature design is
somewhat flawed.

Other ligatures I enjoy: Vandoren - but a tendency to slip up the reed,
Bonade (of course! But they need adjustment sometimes), and Luyben - a
terrific standby. There are others....but these are the ones I recommend.
I do not care for the Rovner, but there are many who will fight to the
death on that one! My experience has been poor tonguing consistancy in
extreme registers and uneven response top to bottom......yes...I do have a
couple different versions, and yes, I have used the Rovner for the Bass
Clarinet....same problems.

Roger Garrett

On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, Anthony Goret wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I use actually a Harrison ligature and I love it.
>
> In Belgium, we have these ligatures:
>
> - BG
> - Vandooren
> - Harrison (not easy to find)
> - Ligaphone
> - Eddie Daniels
>
> I try to find new ligatures but it's not very easy to find in Belgium,
> which ligatures do you have in your country ? prices ?
>
> Thanks.
> Anthony Goret
> clarinetist/musicus
>
> -----
> E-Mail: Anthony.Goret@-----.be
> http://www.creabel.com/anthony
>
>
>